


'We held in our hands the future of the world'

by regnumveritatis



Series: There is no such thing as "too much Luke/Rey"! [7]
Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Asthma, Awesome Howling Commandos, BAMF Leia Organa, BAMF Rey, Bodhi Rook Lives, Brainwashing, Chronic Illness, Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Good Parent Han Solo, Historical References, Internalized Homophobia, Luke Skywalker Deserves Better, Manipulative Sheev Palpatine, Married Life, Nazis, Older Man/Younger Woman, POV Rey (Star Wars), Period-Typical Racism, Period-Typical Sexism, Phil Coulson Has the Patience of a Saint, Phil Coulson's Trading Card Collection, Politics, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rey Kenobi, Rey Needs A Hug, Strong Female Characters, Super Soldier Serum, Team as Family, True Love, Unplanned Pregnancy, Unrequited Love, World War II
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-13
Updated: 2018-12-07
Packaged: 2019-03-30 10:39:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 35,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13949844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/regnumveritatis/pseuds/regnumveritatis
Summary: Saw some fanart and it prompted me to write a Captain America crossover. Please give it a shot.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AnonymousVow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnonymousVow/gifts).



December 12, 2011, Artic Ocean, 3 am (Coulson's POV)

There are times when Phil Coulson wishes he was a bit more inclined to lying. You'd think someone who belongs to an international spy organization would have the skill down to an art, but Coulson's always been an idealist at heart. And idealists tend to subconsciously champion the truth on certain matters. He's still wondering how freezing his balls off in the Arctic for a phone call equates into those matters as he and a couple of fellow agents continue their drive through the frozen wasteland.

As a kid, he'd begged his parents to let him go the North Pole. They thought it was because he wanted to find Santa's factory at the North Pole. In truth he wanted to go and find Captain America. His father had shook his head in amusement and told the ten year old boy with a broken nose and a hoard of comics 'Be careful what you wish for'. Phil didn't understand it then, he does now. Though part of him _still_ wants to rent a little ice boat and look around with a sailor's glass to find his all-time heroine (her husband Lieutenant Colonel Luke Skywalker is his favorite hero, Phil already checked the canyons as a rookie) the funeral she deserves.

Finally, after what seems like a lifetime a small figure waving at their direction is visible. The man is holding a red-crystal lamp/staff. He must be from around here, nobody from a warm climate reacts so passively to the cold. Not a single indication of cold emerges from the man. Lucky bastard.

"Are you the guys from Washington?"

One of his fellow agents inquires sarcastically to their guide if they get many visitors out here. Coulson is too busy trying to stop himself from shivering to give his subordinate the 'agent glare' as Hawkeye calls it. Ah, Galen Marek. He's a good kid. Even if he does possess the mental maturity and humor of a twelve year old. Phil misses him. He snaps himself back to work and leads the inquiry, determined to get this over with before he freezes any further.

"How long have you been on site?"

"Since this morning. A Russian oil team called it in about eighteen hours ago."

"How come nobody spotted it before?"

"It's really not that surprising. This landscape's changing all the time. You got any ideas what this thing is exactly?"

"I don't know. It's probably a weather balloon _." 'Please, **please** don't be a parting gift from those crazy Asgardian brothers.'_

 His subordinate states the obvious fact; they don't have the equipment for a job like this. Phil lets him speak, it's important to hear people out if you want something done unanimously. Also, Coulson finds if he permits this sort of dialogue, his fellow agents trust him more and he wants that. There are not a lot of people S.H.I.E.L.D. agents can confide in. They should at least be able to trust their handler and their supervisors. Someone else asks when they can start craning the unidentified object out. The search team leader's reply that they'll need a hell of a crane becomes glaringly insignificant to describe the sight before them. 

The middle aged man's eyes burst like open saucers as he recognizes a WWII Hydra plane of a magnitude he's never seen. _**God, the Smithsonian's curator would probably sell his kidney for less than half of this beauty!**_ Coulson finds that the cold in his cheeks has lessened, overcome by the emotion upon the discovery. He's repressing a giddy schoolboy smile as he and the rest of his companions open the metal aircraft in the most careful way possible. Well, as careful as the laser beam allows anyway.

"Base, we're in."

  
One of his subordinates, Agent Peterson he thinks but it's hard to tell who's under the fur lined hood, nearly slips on the ice covering the ground. Phil catches him and advises caution. The ice doesn't make metal a better place to hit your head on. Or any part of your body really. Phil watches the aircraft's beehive pattern columns in awe, wondering just how long it took to make them and if this plane ever saw active combat or if by some miracle he's walking on the same plane **SHE** walked in so many decades past. Agent Morria calls him over by his given name, a sign that causes him to run towards the man as fast as the ice allows.

Morria points to the frozen shield of Captain America, colors perfectly intact as the day it sunk to this sub-zero grave. Cast off from the world, alone but not unloved. Never unloved, on this rare occasion history chose to remember correctly and at last it's time for the shield and its owner to receive their long-overdue rewards.

"Oh my God.... [Into his earpiece] Base, give me a line to the Colonel. Now, please."

The voice from his earpiece replies that it's three a.m. in the morning. As if today's time was somehow consequential to the decades-awaited retrieval of a national hero.

"I don't care what time it is. She's waited long enough." _You're coming home Cap, you're coming home..._


	2. Chapter 2

March 1942 Tønsberg, Norway (Jocasta Nu's POV)

Young Sister Barriss comes running into the convent halls in fear, exclaiming that the blasted German intruders have come for the treasure entrusted to them since the days of Saint King Olav. They'd done their best to keep the secret safe but the heretical invaders had tortured one of their own and forced her to tell the truth. Godless men, the lot of them. A sign of true evil as well as the dangers presented in this new trend of atheism that's been spreading around the globe like the Black Plague spread through the Middle Ages.

The last time the Germans had tried to investigate and bulldoze the church to search for the treasure in 1940 Mother Superior Nu had appealed directly to the Fuhrer, hoping his love for art would cause him to spare an 'architectonic jewel of the Aryan race'. It had been a dangerous gamble, but one that ultimately paid off when Hitler had sent the Nazi officers a telegram informing that the Church and Convent were not to be touched except in the case of a dire emergency. It seems General Damask (Or 'The Grey Skull' as the soldiers call him in hushed whispers) has conjured up an emergency at last.

Wordlessly, Sister Luminara picks up a sword from the wall as the centuries-old building rumbles with the earth. She hands the other weapon to the Mother Superior after she nods in approval. 'A good shepherdess must watch over her flock, and at times to do so she must fight off the wolves.' All three of them assume battle positions as the rumbling grows louder and louder until the wall breaks down, heavy stones falling down on Sister Barriss instantly. The remaining nun and Mother Superior rush to close their young sister's eyes before picking up their swords again. Enraged, Luminara's hailed stoicism disappears as she runs to drive her weapon through the murderers’ hearts. She succeeds in killing the man who drove the machine against the wall along with two other soldiers but is shot by another figure that has now emerged from the dust clouds: Hego Damask himself.

Stumbling yet filled with resolve, the old woman moves to attack the vile demon who dares to desecrate this holy place and murder her brethren in calm pulse and steady walk. A quick sword-fight rapidly ensues, the mother superior manages to slash his face but Damask overpowers her. He breaks her arm and stabs her in the shoulder. His remaining men proceed to open the Viking knight's coffin as she struggles not to writhe in agony on the stone floors. Indifferent to her pain, Damask opens his mind to speak.

"The members of your holy order have displayed cunning and bravery. It took us a long time to find this place and even longer to come here. You should be commended, Reverend Mother Jocasta."

Damask orders one of his men to help the Reverend Mother up, she holds back the pain as the clumsy youth hoists her up. A boy's face stares at her in fear and pity, revealing his truncated childhood through the hesitancy pouring out through his clear brown irises. **_Oh, how many more children will be forced to spill blood in this heathen war on both sides?_**

"I think that you are a woman of great vision. And in this way we are much alike."

_How dare he!!_ "I'm nothing like you."

"No, of course. But what others see as superstition, you and I know to be a science."

"What you seek is just a legend, a wives’ tale we use to scare our children to sleep."

"Is that so: when why make such an effort to conceal it?"

The Nazi General throws off the lid of the coffin as if it were nothing and looks upon a pale cerulean glass cube, the cube crafted by a Venetian glass blower in the 1400s to serve as a decoy for those seeking the treasure. Unlike the pirates in the 15th century, Damask is neither disillusioned nor fooled by the ploy as he picks up the glass artifact from the Viking knight's skeletal remains.

"The Tesseract was the jewel of Corran Horn's treasure room." He turns to face the reverend Mother and deliberately drops and smashes the glass cube, parasitic bastard. “It’s not something one buries. But I think it is close, yes?"

'Damask's gone mad if he thinks my will is so easily broken. I've not spent fifty years in service to God just to bend at the beck and call of a leech.' "I won't help you."

"No. But perhaps you can help your village. You must have some friends out there. Some...some little children you give class to perhaps. I have no need for them to die."

He waves to the left and a large tank outside points its guns towards the village menacingly. The Reverend Mother stays quiet; she knows Damask will never keep his word. He'll kill them anyway so she sees no reason to render their sacrifice null. 

Jocasta attempts to summon the runes in her sword, to summon any of her powers but is incapable of doing so. She looks to the stain in her robes and notices that Damask's hand print is a yellowish color. The same ochre tint found in the yamaslari alchemist brew that cancels their mystic connection. Why that cowardly, heretical cheater!! She struggles against the hands of the strong youth holding her in one last attempt to break free as Damask trails his cultist hands over the tree carving on one of the tower walls. 'No! Please, Lord. Do not permit this. Do not abandon us....'

"Yggdrasil. Tree of the world. Guardian of wisdom and fate, also." Her pleas to the Almighty fall on deaf ears as he finds the hidden nook on the tree carving and unearths the real cube. ‘Deus meus, Deus meus ut quid dereliquisti me?'*

The eyes of her faith's enemy glow in sinister satisfaction, a sickly gold tint to them as they hold that which should never be wielded by mortals. Foolish wretch, he has sealed his everlasting damnation and smiles at it. He remarks mockingly at the Fuhrer's trinket searching in the desert and asks if she has ever touched the sacred artifact. She responds with the truth, having nothing further to lose.

"My duty is to serve, not to covet and certainly not to possess. The Tesseract is not mine or any mere mortal's to have."

"Exactly." One of his men comes forward with a metal box, Damask places the Tesseract inside as he gives his troops the order to open fire. They are children playing with matches in a stable, incapable of understanding the gravity of this decision.

"Fool! You cannot control the power you hold. You will burn!"

"I already have, Reverend Mother."

Perhaps the trauma of this event has driven her mad, that must be why she can see the skin around his jaw moving in an unnatural manner as the soldier lets her go. That must be why the portion of his face she slashed has a grey pallor to it that resembles a dead man’s. Jocasta Nu moves to close Sister Luminara's eyes as she'd been unable to do until now. Forgive me sister, forgive us God. A gunshot rings out through the air; suddenly the aged nun feels a great pain sprouting from her abdomen. She turns to see the still smoking gun poised in the general's hand; his Hydra emblem now tinged scarlet at the head with her blood. Her vision starts to fade; thought becomes harder as does the ability to breathe.

_'Deo, in manus tuas commendo spiritum meum libera....'*_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *‘Deus meus, Deus meus ut quid dereliquisti me?’: From Saint Jeronimo's Latin version of the New Testament. It means 'My Lord, my Lord why have you forsaken me?'  
> *Another Latin translation: God, into your hands I deliver my spirit.  
> Hands out tin cup: comments please????


	3. Chapter 3

August 15, 1942, Brooklyn (Rey's POV)

Rey Skywalker (nee Kenobi) didn't sleep much last night. For the most part she sketched her husband's dreaming form. The rise and fall of his chest, the way his hands instinctively move to hug her in slumber, along with all the little quirks she'll be deprived of soon. When the sun starts peeking out at 5 am, she wants to tell the celestial orb to leave them alone today, to go about its orbit backwards so yesterday starts all over again, but logic prevails and she wakes Luke up with a kiss instead. This is her last day with Luke before he gets deployed to West Africa and afterwards Italy, before duty snatches her best friend and husband, and personal hairstylist to where she can't follow. (Not yet anyway).

"Good morning my love, did you have a nice sleep?"

"Every night with you is a good dream, Rey."

Luke gazes inquisitively at her sketch pad and asks permission to see what she drew. He remarks that she is the only person who manages to turn the sight of his 'hairy old man chest' into a regular Adonis. She laughs and kisses him in response. Not too much though, sketching all night has left her famished so she wants food more than she wants to engage in marital activities. (For now, that is). They make breakfast together like they've always done, setting their small but cozy table for two. Luke gently dissuades her taking any salt with her eggs and oatmeal, which is understandable what with her high blood pressure and anemia, but sometimes Rey wishes she didn't have so many dietary restrictions. It sucks to watch and smell so many wonderful things to eat and know that her despairingly frail health would worsen if she ate them. Especially since Luke applies the same restrictions to himself, a trait that's both endearing and frustrating.

"I was thinking of going to the Nursing Corps, after work today. There's a recruitment center near the hospital. "

He extends his hand over the table and cups hers with it. The thin palm dwarfed under his strong but gentle touch. "Rey, as much as I'd approve of you doing your part over there, I don't like the idea of you lying to the federal government."

" **It's not my fault they don't allow married women**. Besides, it's just a little lie. Not like that Chinese legend you told me; about the lady who dressed up as a man to join the army. What was that legend called again?"

"The Song of Mulan, I think. Don't remember the words much, just the concept." Said song was one of many topics first revealed to her in Luke's letters from the Chinese front. The ones her grandfather Benjamin Kenobi would read to her as bedtime stories when she was a little girl.

The letters had originally been for her grandfather, but Luke had started writing one for old Ben Kenobi and one for her after they met in 1927. Rey's grandfather had been very excited about the whole thing. The Parish priest had told her Luke would love her but she hadn't believed it. Nobody besides him loved the asthmatic seven year old who fainted half of the time she tried to keep up with her peers. Still, her grandfather meant well, so Rey had put on the pretty red dress he'd picked out and didn't get it dirty from 'picking' fights with kids. It didn't matter in the end though; she still ruined it when she had an asthma attack which sent her kneeling on the ground. A set of strong but very soft hands had picked her and carried her home, had positioned her upright and told her to take deep, long breaths instead of walking away like most people did.

That had her been her (early) introduction to Luke Skywalker who smiled with pearly teeth as he gave her warm tea and called her grandfather to tell him where she was. Sergeant Luke Skywalker with hair like spun silk and motor grease in his uniform from fixing her grandfather’s supposedly unfix-able car.

Luke was 28 and kind and funny (and very, very handsome). He pressed his head to her chest to check her heartbeat while they played doctor, and said she had an angel's whisper in her chest. But silly doctors who didn't read the good book called it a murmur because that was all their non-believing ears could perceive. He let her borrow his Army cap and actually showed her photos of his soldier friends when she asked if he had any. Took the time to show her how a plane worked and called her drawings 'the best thing since Michelangelo drew his Sistine Chapel'. With Luke she wasn't too skinny or broken or 'not long for this world'. She felt _pretty and smart and wonderful_ , she wanted to make him just as happy forever and ever so she'd saved her allowance to buy the prettiest gumball ring in all the machines and asked him to marry her on his last day staying at the Kenobi house.

His ride for the army, an older gentleman called 'Captain Rex', had laughed hysterically at the whole thing and it made her feel ashamed. Made her think the thought of anybody marrying her was laughable - until Luke accepted the gumball ring and kissed her on the forehead once she started crying. Captain Rex had stopped laughing once he heard her cry and offered her chocolate. In turn Luke said she was too young to marry him right now, but he really liked her offer of 'the best grilled cheese sandwich for lunch' and would accept her offer if she asked him again ten years later. Rey was ecstatic at the answer because to her it meant that he said 'yes'.

 Rey's brought back to the present by his warm, calloused fingertips playing with her yet to be untangled hair. His light-house glow quick to call her from when she goes too deep into her memories, or sketches the world in bright orange and pale desert sky blue and emerald green within the contours of her mind; like she'd done ever since her bout of rheumatic fever left her in-bed for a whole year. Grandfather used to say her brain was probably rainbow colored when she described all the fancy paints in her head. Luke just says her mind is one of a true artist, and so it must be colorful. It's a simple thing to say, but Rey likes how the words sound when they roll off his tongue.

"Maybe I can call in a favor to get you overseas? Think six years is long enough for people to forget and give us a hand?"

"Forget that you **knocked** a three-star general unconscious in the midst of battle and ordered a retreat? I think you'll have to wait six decades for that. To this day, I'm still convinced that if not for General Ilbis and Colonel Typho you'd had been dishonorably discharged."

"It's not my fault the man was gonna get us killed just to hold a bridge. Somebody had to do it."

"Yes, I know. And I'm proud of you for defying orders like that. But I don't think they can pull off a miracle twice."

Punching General Tarkin so the small, exhausted forces of the 5th regiment could survive the Red Army's onslaught had made Colonel Luke Skywalker a hero in the eyes of the 600 men in his unit, and Brooklyn, but a criminal in the eyes of the Army. From what Rey's heard, nobody liked the man anyway. If it'd been her then she definitely wouldn't have dragged the bastard to safety as the men retreated.

Thanks to the intervention of his mentors, Luke had been demoted from Colonel to First Lieutenant and sent to a pencil-pushing job in Brooklyn where Commander Woolfe (a hero of the Great War who was there because he'd refused to quit the Army after a head injury left him blind in one eye) welcomed him with the promise if he worked hard then he'd earn back his post in a relatively short amount of time. Six years, a World War, a marriage and Mount Everest size paper trails later, Luke Skywalker has reached Lieutenant Colonel. Those who work with him believe by the end of the War he'll be reinstated as Colonel, the man in question had actually grown fond of the 'punishing' post because it meant he could stay in one place for a long time. 'With me for a long time,' Rey thinks sadly as she fixes his shirt collar just right so the higher ups find no fault with him.

He ties her hair in a chignon for work, experimenting with her dry brittle hair the way he's prone to do. The process takes him much longer than usual and that's how Rey _knows_ Luke is trying to find comfort in the routine, soaking up the essence of this tiny moment in every strand of her dark brown locks.

Rey's tempted to grab his hands mid-process and beg him not to finish the style, tempted to be unapologetic-ally dramatic and proclaim that she'll keep her hair incomplete till the war’s over so he **HAS** to come back to her in one piece and fix it. But she understands the importance of this for him. Understands how he'll look for this serene quiet when gunfire, and stabs in the back, and men screaming for their mothers, respective patron saints or the Almighty will be all he hears for seemingly endless hours. So she just stares at her pale, gaunt features and tells her 80 pound reflection they'll get through this. The next time Luke's image is poised next to hers in the mirror, it will be **him** and not some bereavement hallucination she conjures up to keep the madness and asperity and sorrow at bay.

"There you go, Mrs. Skywalker. Beautiful as ever."

'You're too good for this goddamn war, Luke. Too noble for any war, really. I have to get over there somehow and save you, before that golden heart gets you killed. I have to keep you safe from all the decorated bullies wearing uniforms on both sides who will attack you with Beretta rifles, or ingratitude.’

"A masterpiece as always Mr. Skywalker. I'll see you for the Expo tonight?"

"The whole Third Reich couldn't stop me from going there with you."

She rises out of the chair, stands on her toes and kisses him so fiercely she can still feel his lips when December's snows start; when he won't be there to sing or hold her hand when she lays in bed from the colds it will bring. And so he can still taste her chapped lips when he goes away where death and fear and temptation will chase him at every turn.

You know, I'm not leaving until tomorrow. You don't have to kiss me that way yet."

"I'll kiss you however I please, thank you very much."

"Rey...don't do anything reckless until I get back."

"How can I? You're taking all the reckless with you."

He hugs her once they've stepped outside the door. Rey in the standard white nurse's garment, and Luke in the ivy green of the army's uniform. It doesn't change the fact he's leaving but it feels good to have his body's warmth and love and gaiety pressed against her nonetheless.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hands out tin cup: comment please???


	4. Chapter 4

August 15, Sacred Heart Hospital, Brooklyn, 4pm (Rey's POV)

 Her uniform is sweaty as she waits in line along with thirty other nurses who want to do their part in this war. She refuses to feel small as her fellow medical aides tower over Rey's five feet and no extra inches. If nothing else, her resume is good. She's served in some of the harshest epidemics of the hospital: the cancer wing, scarlet fever bout of 39, the 1941 TB resurgence which was also the only time her husband argued against long hours at work. Not that she blames him, losing grandfather to the disease had shaken Luke pretty badly; and is recommended by people from all of them.

Rey sees the woman in front of her fidget as she gasps while reading the newspaper. Is this one of those things her endless repertoire of soldier stories and stays at the hospital made it impossible to understand? The nurse in question is beautiful: skin like a fresh apricot, plump lips that display faithful health, thick blonde locks that flow all the way down to her ample breasts. 'It's like she was **made** to highlight my ugliness' she thinks before reminding herself that it doesn't matter how thin she is or how her chest doesn't fit a bra. Luke sees her as perfect and that's the only opinion that she should listen to. Oh wait, the Amazonian nurse is looking down at me. That means she's going to talk soon.

"Boy, a lot of guys getting killed over there. It kind of makes you think twice about enlisting, huh?"

 _Not when my husband could be next on the KIA list, clearly you're just another girl looking for adventure._ "Nope."

The nurse stares at her with saucer-wide eyes as she turns to leave the precinct. Good riddance, the war doesn't need any more cowards. The politicians and bankers at Wall Street are enough.

"Kenobi, Rey."

She thanks God the fake ID got through as the doctor calls her to the examination table. Like 99% percent of the world's population the man screams 'pitiful' at her with his eyes. If only the world saw people the way Luke Skywalker sees the world, and everyone in it. There wouldn't be a war raging if her husband's mind-frame was the general philosophy.

"Miss. What did your father die of?" _'Please don't lessen your willingness to recruit me when I say the truth.'_

"He had a stroke, Sir."

"I see. Says here your mother died in childbirth and you were raised by your grandfather: what killed him?"

"He was a widower who became a parish priest, used to administer last rites at the TB ward. Got hit, couldn't shake it."

The doctor reads the godforsaken list Rey knows by heart. Every word a stain on her eligibility: Asthma, past Rheumatic fever, past Scarlet fever, heart trouble, palpitation or pounding in heart, has had household contact with tuberculosis patient, high blood pressure, easy fatigability, chronic or frequent colds.

"Sorry, Miss."

"I'm a hard worker. Just give me a chance."

"You'd be ineligible on your asthma alone."

"Isn't there anything you can do?"

"I'm doing it. I'm saving your life."

 _'Yeah. Sure. If that helps you sleep at night._ _Impertinent swine. '_

 

She considers going to watch a movie after that humiliating interview, but ultimately decides against it. The last four times she went on her own to watch a film, different douche-bags whose names she can't remember started to beat her up in the alley behind the movie theater on separate occasions. In her defense, Rey actually managed to land a few punches. She might have won two of those fights if her stupid lungs hadn't turned traitor and left the young woman wheezing for breath. Her husband taught her how to land a punch years ago. Best not give him any reason to grow sad as he would undoubtedly be if he finds her cleaning the blood off the nurses’ uniform.

Rey washes the event away under the Marseille soap and lemon water she uses to clean her hair. Scolds away the disappointment at herself with the hot water distilled by their apartment's tiny shower. After her skin no longer carries whiffs of medicinal alcohol, strangers’ cigarettes and random car smog, Rey applies the finishing touch to make her hair look shinier: a slight vinegar rinse in which she turns up her nose at the smell but tolerates for tonight because just this once she wants to look stunning. Wants the crowd to see her holding Luke's hand sans the one or two or ten silhouettes giving her the once-over and wondering, 'What the hell is a man that handsome doing with that pencil thin rusty hen*?'

To reinforce that idea, she discards her typical wool suits for tonight and chooses her very best dress: an eggplant colored velvet dress with side seam and neck/shoulder seam button closures. It was long sleeved, the way all her night dresses are, but Rey had compensated for that by sewing a sequin and beaded bow accent on the bodice and lace on the sleeves. She feels pretty when she stares at herself in the mirror afterwards. Not Vivien Leigh levels of pretty, but she's happy with how she looks. Maybe she should add a sweater just in case? They did say the cold was coming earlier-

"Rey, I'm home."

Oh shit, she forgot to throw away her enlistment form. Jesus H Christ, can nothing go right today? When Luke shows up in their room with the crumpled paper in hand she waits for his response. 'Please don't be angry, I've never seen you angry at me. I don't want that to be part of our memories when I look back and miss you.'

"If you were going to choose a fake state, Rey, you should have picked Utah. Then they would have taken you out of pity. But seriously Doll, Jersey?"

'Thank God for letting me have and love this man.' She doesn't bother hiding her blush when he takes notice of her beautifying efforts after placing the enlistment form on their bedside drawer. Quite the contrary, she takes pride in it as her husband's pupils widen with giddy surprise and admiration, and just the tiniest hint of lust which suggests they won't be heading off to sleep after the Expo's over. Rey's sure the only reason they're not engaging in any 'marital duties' right now is because they're both much too square-headed to pass up a World Exposition fair that promised the future.

The fair itself is a feast for the eyes. Vibrant and full of interesting new spectacles around every corner. If this is the future, then Rey thinks she'll like it. She'll like having Luke to hold her hand as the world's electric buildings start running on solar power instead of gasoline, and planes go longer distances around the world.

None of those compare to Biggs Darklighter's floating car though. After that, Rey figures the fair can't top that glorious miracle of science. A flying red car, right in front of the world's steady gaze!! That said car only flies for a few seconds is irrelevant.The impossible has been accomplished. If Darklighter's automobile can float then Rey can enlist. After all it's a fair, there's no better place to try her luck.

Rey tucks her wedding ring inside her purse as she did the last time, she was outside a recruitment center. She mentally reassures the petite gold band that it won't be gone from her finger for long. It'll just be for ten-twenty minutes tops.

"Rey,please. Let's forget that for tonight and just go dancing."

‘It has to be today Luke, tomorrow I'll start picturing you lying motionless on the ground, face eaten by rats in a trench or staring aimlessly on some field with a bloody red rose protruding from your chest because I couldn't get to you in time.’

"You go ahead darling. I'll catch up in ten, fifteen minutes tops."

"Rey...Why are you so keen to fight? There are so many important jobs."

 _'Just this **once** , look at me like everybody else. Then you'd understand this is the only way I can help you...' _"Like what: Factory work? We both know my heart and lungs can't take that. Collect scrap metal? My skin rashes every time I touch nickel."

"You have nothing to prove Rey. Not to me, and not to them."

"Luke...There are men and women laying down their lives. I have no right to do any less than them. This isn't about me."

Her husband's hand runs through his golden locks which have started to sport a few silver strands these days. Wisdom leaking through a careless majesty, she thinks as Luke sighs and sends her a look that tells Rey he's made a decision.

"Give me your wedding ring. That way it's not confined to your purse while you enlist." She hugs him tight enough to convey everything she doesn't know how to say.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *rusty hen : 40s slang for unattractive women.
> 
> Hands out tin cup: comments please????


	5. Chapter 5

The enlistment officer doesn't proclaim her 'terminally ill' with his eyes once she steps into the office. Rey takes it as a sign of good luck. The second sign of good luck is she personally knows the Matron Nurse evaluating recruits: Maz Kanata is amused to see her and keeps Mrs. Skywalker's secret. Rey suspects though, it's partially because she wants to use that frying pan she never got to hit Luke with on whoever suggests she's married. Rey is in a medical examination room when a nurse whispers something inaudible to Doctor Plo Koon.

"Wait here Miss."

"Is there a problem Doctor?"

"No, just wait here."

She stares at her hands, searching for a lighter skin around her ring finger which might have broadcast the truth. Rey finds thankfully, it seems her skin is too pale for such shadows to form. _All right then: it wasn't the skin tone so what gave me away? What brought this about?_ The young woman turns her head back to the wall. She looks at a sign warning against lying on your enlistment form and starts to get ready to leave. Maybe the file examiner here is a meticulous chap, the type who memorizes what kind of ink they use on everything. If so, best to leave and just tell Luke they almost caught her. Though Rey won't apologize to her husband for trying to do her part, that's where she draws the line.

But before she can leave, an Enlistment Office MP walks in the room and Rey looks up at him worriedly. The more cynical part of her nature comments Luke will have full rights to criticize her decision after he bails her out of jail tonight or tomorrow morning. An older doctor enters the room; Rey's ears catch a German accent as the mystery physician thanks the MP before the man quietly steps outside the small examination room. **Please** don't be part of some federal spy tracking organization that's just assumed my efforts mean I'm really a Nazi mole....

“So you want to go overseas. Have an adventure? Fall in love? Perhaps even kill a Nazi?"

 _Okay, now I'm beyond confused._ "Excuse me Doctor?"

The medic in question walks over to her and introduces himself as Doctor Lawrence San Tekka. He claims to represent an organization called the Strategic Scientific Reserve, a group Rey's never heard of. Considering she's the wife of a fairly high-level CO, one who tells her as much as he's allowed to, that scares her a bit. Benjamin Kenobi's hours-long etiquette training is the only thing which allows his granddaughter to introduce herself and shake the offered hand.

She notices the doctor looking through her files. Rey pushes back the urge to scream for Maz and run for the hills. That is, until her myopic hazel eyes focus on the way he skims at the papers. Doctor San Tekka has the same bemused expression on his face her grandfather had when she was ten and tried to sneak out of the house and sail to China because Luke said in a letter he'd been shot in the shoulder. The gaze of someone who's had their hope in humanity restored through the unlikeliest way imaginable. **Just who is this man and what dark place caused him to seek faith in a 80 pound, law-breaking asthmatic nurse?**

"Where are you from Sir?"

"Queens. Corner of 73rd Street and Utopia Parkway. Before that, Germany. Does this trouble you?"

Doctor San Tekka utters that last sentence with an air of resignation, the same air she wears when patients stare at her wedding ring as if it shouldn't exist. Perhaps it would bother some nurses, it must bother some people but I can't be bothered by the doctor. Otherwise I'd be bothered by myself.

Rey's grandmother, Satine, had immigrated from the Grand Duchy of Baden in 1866, running away with Grandfather, who deserted the Italian Army to save her, once the Federal 8th Corp's defeat in the Austro-Prussian war led to the Prussian occupation of northern Württemberg. Before then, her grandmother was amongst the first women admitted into the International Workingmen's Association*, and was distinguished for her anti-Imperialist speeches against Bismarck. To further the controversy, her father's stroke was always believed by her grandfather to be the result of poisoning due to his seething article in the New York Times against Bishop Alma Bridwell White's Guardians of Liberty* tome. In Rey Skywalker Kenobi runs the blood of leftists and deserters, as well as the blood of Mussolini's men and Hitler's.

"Honestly Doctor? It's more likely you'll be offended by me if you knew where I hailed from."

"And where is that, Miss Kenobi. Is it Harlem? Or Rochester? Four different attempts in four districts." _'Pater Noster, **please** let Luke pay my bail before eleven if I can't talk my way out of this. I want to sleep beside my husband tonight, even if it's just for a few hours.'_

"You might have the wrong file. People tend to get distracted in fairs, perhaps they didn't hand you the right one because of it."

"It's not the exams I'm interested in. It's the four previous attempts. But you didn't answer my question: do you want to sail to Europe for adventure? Romance? Or do you just want to help kill Nazis?"

"Is this a test?"

“Yes.”

She can picture her husband's voice replying to Doctor San Tekka how amazing is it every word in that sentence is wrong. His signature wit, followed by a nice, steady kiss on her hand which slowly climbs its way up to her neckline. No, she's not interested in forming a wartime romance. Luke is all she's ever wanted, everything she'll ever need. As for adventure: while Rey can't say she's never wanted to join Errol Flynn or Tyrone Power in their silver screen crusades for the downtrodden, the young nurse wouldn't trade her life for them. Adventure's all fine and dandy for movies but Rey would never choose adventure over her family. Besides she's not stupid enough to think she could survive all those film scenarios. Unlike Maureen O'Hara, she can't fish in some wilderness waterfall to save her life. The cold afterwards would kill her.

As for killing Nazis, that's never been a priority. She's a priest's grandchild, and as such, the ten commandments are ingrained in her brain the way songs and baseball games are ingrained into the minds of others. Rey's never dreamed of killing anybody, but she has cried herself to sleep at night because of bullies. Bullies like Gwendolyn Phasma, who stole her medicine in school and kept telling everybody she was a thief, and that Luke wasn't real when she showed his handmade doll for her to school. Bullies like General Tarkin, who would rather let men die than relinquish their foolish pride. Bullies like Adolf Hitler, who slapped yellow stars on all the Jews and calls people like her 'genetically impure'. And just like that Rey Skywalker Kenobi has her answer.

"Doctor, I don't want to fall in love: I have the perfect man already. A life with him is all the adventure I want. And I don't want to kill anyone: But I don't like bullies. I don't care where they're from."

Her grandfather's stare returns, this time more potent. As if this man believed her to be nothing short of a miracle made flesh and bone. "Well, there are already so many 'model' individuals with large muscles and small brains doing their part in this war. Perhaps it's time we place faith in the non-physical model traits for a change?"

The doctor draws back the curtains. As they exit the room together, he explains he can give her a chance to participate in the war effort, but only a chance. He stamps 1A on her enlistment papers and Rey almost says 'I'll take it' before she remembers that legally she can't do so. Her husband has to grant her permission to travel overseas.

"Doctor, can I take this home and think it over?"

"Take the documents home to your husband? Yes." Doctor San Tekka explains he accidentally overheard her conversation with Luke upon seeing the look of trepidation she's unable to hide.

Rey takes her pocket watch out and finds that exactly twelve minutes have passed since her interview. 'That means I didn't lie,' she thinks happily. 

When Rey finds Luke at their usual dance hall, the man is burning a hole into the carpet. He's holding the compass Captain Rex gave him for a wedding present, the one with their joint photograph inside. Clutching on to the object like a desperate sinner clutches a rosary in Church. 'Oh Luke, I didn't mean to worry you.' When he notices her, Luke's cerulean eyes brim with relief and he rushes over to hug her.

"Why'd you let me go if it worried you so badly, Luke?"

"It was what you needed. And I'm your husband, not your dictator: I can't make your decisions for you; I can only do my best to help you on them. How it'd go?"

"Luke...I'm in."

"They let you in the Nursing corps?"

"Not exactly. I need you to read this."

Her husband ends up interrogating Doctor San Tekka for every ambiguous word in the print once he's read the files. Their plans for dancing end up abysmally forgotten. The good doctor confesses to Rey: he never wants to see her husband angry if this is how he reacts in calm tension, but aside from that, he finds Luke good company. Rey doesn't blame him; her grandfather always said the wrath of a gentle man was the most fearsome.

Around three hours later, when both of them probably know more about the SSR than the people in charge of it, Luke asks the doctor to excuse them for a moment.

"Sometimes I think you like doing the most unexpected thing humanly possible."

"I **swear** I didn't ask for the secret organization chaps."

"You don't have to ask/ You're a Kenobi **AND** a Skywalker. The rules of logic don't apply to you or me."

"No wonder we're perfect for each other then."

"Rey: do you remember when I came back from the front when you were 16 and I dug that trench on your grandfather's backyard in the middle of the night? Just dug like a madman because the shell shock kept telling my brain I was in danger and woke you up?"

"Yes. What about it?"

"Most people's reaction would be to think I was crazy or to rat me out. Your response was to bring me a blanket and calm me down. Afterwards you even helped me fill the hole back, no questions asked. I knew from that moment on you were someone with an unshakable sense of loyalty. Someone who always tried to do the right thing...I'm asking you now: do you think, after all we've heard, this is the right thing for you to do?"

"Well, it's covert and I don't like that part very much, but I do genuinely believe that I could make a difference here."

He takes her hand very gently, and Rey's reminded this will be the last day for God-knows how long she feels this hand touch hers. Rey finds herself leaning into the touch, wanting to burn every detail of it into the deepest stores of her mind. It ends quicker than she expected, Luke takes the documents in his hands, looks to her in search of protesting tells and finds none. Wordlessly he signs on the paper, his signature a slow repetition of circular movements that her mind fills with rose red and ink blue and cobalt black.

"Thank you Luke."

"For this?"

"For everything."

He smiles in good nature as a response. Their last plan for the night which included a great deal of farewell love-making is achieved to perfection.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The International Workingmen's Association (IWA, 1864–1876), often called the First International, was an international organization which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing socialist, communist[1] and anarchist political groups and trade union organizations that were based on the working class and class struggle. It was founded in 1864 in a workmen's meeting held in St Martin's Hall, London. It heavily opposed 19th century Imperialism.  
> *Guardians of Liberty was an edited reprint of White’s 1925 book The Ku Klux Klan In Prophecy. Of the 13 chapters in Guardians Vol. I, 7 are edited chapters from KKK in Prophecy, and one chapter is from Heroes of the Fiery Cross (1928). It is devoted nearly entirely to promoting White's deeply held fears and hatred of the Roman Catholic Church and of Roman Catholic individuals.
> 
> Hands out tin cup: comments please????


	6. Chapter 6

August 16, 1942, Unknown Mountainous Region somewhere in Europe (Grey Skull's POV)

General Hego Damask stands poised waiting for the last months's labor to be measured. The tireless pursuit of starting over from scratch to unleash the godlike power has taken a toll on Doctor Palpatine. One which could have been avoided if not for the deluded idealisms of charity which prevented the Guardians from achieving their full potential. It's a shame the sisters and monks refused to share with him the secrets that they so readily revealed to Doctor San Tekka. He might have given the Reverend Mother a prestigious post had she only handed him the Tesseract when he first asked.

Damask loathes the dead woman for her narrow mindedness, though he admits she and her acolytes died with dignity and grace. Those aging blind monks in China who represented the male division of her order were far less noble in their deaths. Chirrut Imwe and Caleb Dume cost him good men when they blew themselves up in a cowardly move which killed Japanese and Hydra allies. And to make matters worse, neither of them revealed the location of the last member to be admitted, the first one besides those two suicidal lunatics to display a natural connection to Yggdrasil's threads in decades. The soldier might have been more amenable to his cause, even if he was a primitive American.

"Are you ready, Dr. Palpatine?"

"My machine requires the most delicate calibration. Forgive me if I seem overcautious."

Sheev has a long-standing tendency to portray himself as weak; to play the dutiful puppet when Berlin's emissaries walk into the room. Hego would never stoop so low, but he understands for Hydra to survive it must have politicians, as well as warriors. General Damask can persuade easily enough, but his manipulative skills pale in comparison to Doctor Palpatine's. His deceivingly quivering tongue will do marvels for the new world regime they'll build together.

"And, are you certain those conductors of yours can withstand the energy surge long enough for a transference?"

"With this artifact, I am certain of nothing. Since we know so little of it, this experiment may prove to be yet another failure."

Brave of the man to tell his superior the truth, especially since he knows every failure brings him farther from his position as Hydra's right hand, and closer to that lovely torture room less than thirty meters down this corridor. For that, Damask will let him live, just one more time if the procedure fails.

Careful not to touch the artifact with his hands Damask inserts the Tesseract into the machine. Palpatine begins to power up the conductors which will harness the energy. So far, so good. No explosions or loss of technical assistants's limbs like last time this far into the transference. 

"Twenty percent. Forty. Sixty. Stabilizing at 70%."

And this is why scientists with politically inclined minds must only compose half of Hydra. They're either too cautious or ridiculously overconfident. Refusing to wait through more months of possibly needless research, Damask takes over the controls. After all, he didn't travel all the way here for safety. He turns the controls up to maximum against Sheev's feeble protests.

Blue light flitters through the machine, glowing with raw, untamed energy, but not harmful to the two individuals tempting fate in the room thus far. 

Palpatine asks and proceeds to evaluate the functional energy transaction between his machine and the Tesseract. Yes, Hego Damask chose well when he selected the under-acknowledged scientist for his cause.

"I must congratulate you, Sheev. Your designs do not disappoint. Though they may require some slight reinforcement."

"Remarkable...The exchange is stable. The energy we have just collected could power my design, all my designs. This will change the war."

 _Only the war? How uncharacteristically simple minded of you my friend._ "No, doctor. This will change the world."

August 29, Secret Brooklyn Base (Rey's POV)

If Rey Skywalker (nee Kenobi) had a nickel for every time Biggs Darklighter has been in need of her service this week, then she'd be on her way to making a small fortune. At school she was always clumsy or disoriented because school started on September so classes had the added burden of fighting off colds and that led to a lot of bruises. Grandfather used to say there were clumsier people than her in perfect health. Rey hadn't believed him until now, when she's attending to the playboy millionaire for what feels like the nine-hundredth time.

"So what was it this time, Biggs? Slam your fingers on the door trying to impress a girl or were you tinkering again?"

"Maybe I just wanted the pleasure of your company. After all, you're the only girl I've met who's asked about the diamagnets attached to my flying car."

"I only asked because it's a marvelous concept. Don't get any ideas."

"Rey, come on. Do I look like the type of guy capable of dishonoring a married woman?"

"With both hands tied around your back."

"Okay then, let me rephrase that: I would never think of dishonoring Luke Skywalker's girl."

"Slightly more believable."

In one of life's surprising little quirks, Biggs had been previously acquainted with her husband. They'd met in November of 1936 when Luke punched her in the volunteering soup kitchen so she wouldn't lose points in her nursing program. Of course this was only done after grandfather convinced both Luke **AND** her that it wasn't lying if Luke punched her in since she was helping people, just not on that particular day. Oh, how the older priest had loved his certain points of view.

Luke being Luke decided to stay and help which resulted in him meeting the 19 year old Biggs Darkilghter who was fixing the building's electricity in exchange for food. The billionaire hasn't told Rey what happened in that meeting so she hasn't asked her husband about it in any letters but whatever it was Luke said or did earned him Biggs's unconditional loyalty.

"Speaking of friends: Have you seen Leia recently?"

"No, she's busy with the recruits. And she's out of your league, Darklighter."

Technically speaking Rey doesn't believe in 'leagues' for dating prospects. By those standards, Luke should have married someone like Leia and she should be on her way to spinsterhood, but teasing Biggs is much too fun for her to give up. He's the first civilian friend her age she's ever had and Leia's her first female friend her age. In school she made no friends, and in work she had polite acquaintances her age whose respect Rey earned but in truth Maz was her only real friend there.

When she started dating Luke, he presented her to his men who were very sweet from the beginning. They didn't criticize her asthma or mentally scream in surprise when they saw her. As far as they were concerned, their Commanding officer was an excellent judge of character, so if Luke was serious enough about Rey to present her to them it meant she was swell.

The men were pretty swell in her opinion as well. Each had their own brand of flare which Rey liked: Private Dogma and his extensive knowledge of the original Bible languages to the point where his army brothers swore he sleep-talked in Greek, Hebrew and Latin. Private Tup and his love for booby traps. Sergeant Hevy and his particular fondness for large guns as the first option. Rey sees them as her men to an extent, and she always thought they did in turn. They'd been quick to help around the block in her husband's absence, for which she is very grateful. Rey doesn't think she could tolerate coming home to an empty house, though she could do with them sending her less soup, if she's honest. _Boys, one two-day cold with a slight fever of 102 and they think you need to live off vegetable broth and orange juice with mint._

Rey's sure that's the first thing she liked about Agent Leia Organa: how she was more interested in her resume than her physique, and put her to work fixing a man's broken nose. The second thing she liked was that Leia broke said man's nose herself.

When the young nurse first saw Leia in her SSR uniform, which fit like a custom made glove, with scarlet lips Rey's mind was begging to sketch, she hadn't known what to think. Part of her was scared that Lor San Tekka would turn around and replace her with the brown fire-eyed British lady because she was so perfect in everything. With Leia every step she took, every bite in her meal, hell even the way she dozed off from overworking was a graceful dance to which only she knew the melody. The rest of the world was tone-deaf to her perfection.

Thankfully that fear was greatly exaggerated. Leia had no interest in supplanting her position. To Rey's immense surprise, Agent Organa **admired** her. It was a strange thing, to have someone so vibrant and beautiful exclaim she was praise-worthy. A strange thing that made Rey feel giddy with excitement and shy all at once.

She writes about them to Luke: writes about Biggs and his platinum machines and pitch black humor lighted with stars in between; of queen-like Leia and her ivory skin which causes mere mortals to freeze upon confrontation; of his men and their uninterrupted allegiance towards 'The Colonel's girl'. Rey all but soaks her best green ribbon in perfume, wanting the smell of blue hyacinths to reach him wherever it is they've sent her husband. She waits for the ribbon to dry and places it inside the envelope along with the small care package she's managed to procure. 'Please let it reach you soon,' she asks God as the mailman takes the box. It's a different boy now, the previous one enlisted.

Rey's mind roams the horizon as she watches the youth walk away, wondering if next week he'll be replaced as well. She opens her purse, takes out Rex's compass which Luke gave her 'so that you can find me halfway across the galaxy'. Lord, that man is so dramatic, though Rey supposes she's no better. The compass points north but she focuses more on the picture pressed inside than any directions the navigational instrument provides.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hands out tin cup: comments please???


	7. Chapter 7

September 6, 1942, Secret Brooklyn Base (Leia's POV)

They've just brought Private Needa in for the procedure. While not a knight in shining armor, the man at least has a strong sense of duty. Which might prevent Doctor San Tekka's nightmares of creating another  Hego Damask. At any rate, he's a better candidate than Gilmore Hodge. Lord knows the brute would probably become some sort of King Kong if the good doctor hadn't dissuaded Colonel Madine from choosing the walking ode to idiocy. Not even Biggs liked him, a telling sign if there ever was one.

Agent Organa casts her eye to Nurse Kenobi, wondering if the spunky girl and Biggs actually went through with Lor's plan to replace the 'spare' vial of Doctor San Tekka's wonder formula with colored blue water. If so, Rey shouldn't have told Leia the plan. The young nurse was better off keeping the treasonous act between her and Darklighter. Yet Rey had trusted her against all logic with this reckless scheme of theirs fueled by an old man's paranoia and encouraged by two young people's adrenaline addiction. Not that she's any better than both her friends in that regard. If she was then she would have told everything to General Madine instead of risking jail time for collaboration.

It's surprising really, how quickly the SSR agent has grown fond of the roguishly charming engineer, though NOT in a romantic fashion, and the supposedly frail nurse. She's known them far less time than all her boarding school mates and fellow cotillion girls. Leia Organa feels more at home with her elbows coated in oil stains as she fixes cars with them, than she ever did in the 19 years she spent as part of London's elite society. Her older brother Ezra (God bless his soul) used to say she was a knight stuck in a rich girl's body. She'd believed him, idolizing as only little girls with doting older brothers do. Then as she grew up the illusion faded, Ezra was trained to be a respectable member of society and she was begrudgingly instructed on how to be the perfect trophy wife. Ezra became her sanctuary, only with him was she still naive enough to believe in beating the odds.

Leia still hates their last conversation together was a fight over how it wasn't proper to train as an agent in the SSR, and she should have been content to just marry Fred. How she'd parroted back what everyone save him drilled into her head, instead of leaping head-on like her heart demanded. She swore never again when the KIA notice came, dragging both her smile and her resolve to 'do what is expected' down into the deepest part of the ocean. Where not even Nemo's Nautilus would find it.

Rey proved it was only a partial success, because the sight of the tiny nurse composing better cars to sketch beside Darklighter, and formerly stone-faced Lawrence San Tekka brought back the grin Leia thought she'd only fake for the rest of her life.

Senator Holdo doesn't bother shaking her hand. The man just stares at her SSR uniform. Leia's convinced the man's limited numbers of brain cells are struggling whether the 'outfit' was morally enough for her to be burned at the stake for opting to take a visible place in a man's court, or kinky enough for him to tear it off her in his bedchambers. His wife Amylin, the real brains behind the political aspect of this project, shakes everybody's hands and takes a picture with the reluctant Doctor San Tekka besides Colonel Madine.

The Senator's wife is willfully ignorant of her friend's discomfort, just like whatever fledgling sense of respect Leia had for the woman shrivels up into oblivion. 'Oh joy, the walking hypocritical penis is talking again.'

"Why exactly are we in Brooklyn, Madine?"

“We needed access to the city's power grid. Of course, if you'd given me the generators I requisitioned..."

"A lot of people are asking for funds, Colonel."

Fred Clemson, State Department uses that awkward moment to introduce himself and shakes Madine's hand. Clemson says if this project of theirs comes through, they'd like to see it used for something other than headlines. Project, as if the sole purpose of extracting the doctor from Germany was to produce cheap flashlights and parlor tricks. If she ever has a chance, Leia will expose half these idiots's dirty laundry and smile as they panic over the following reputation-shred.

Rey and Biggs share a knowing look. The nurse clutches the compass/locket where Rey Kenobi hoards her sweetheart's picture which she never lets anyone see. Though she does read his love letters as soon as they arrive, letting their small group giggle and sigh romantically. Sometimes Leia thinks about this mystery man, about Rey's Luke who is witty and kind and thoughtful in all his correspondence. For reasons she can't explain, Agent Organa wants this Luke fellow to be old and fat with a double chin. Wants him to be unworthy of Rey so she can dump his bloody ass and then Rey will further her studies as a doctor instead of leaving to play housewife like the rest of their generation.

It feels like a waste to have a colleague so resourceful go from measuring bio-genetic growth of red blood cells to measuring how the week's meatloaf will fit in the oven. Leia has no idea how Biggs is so at ease about it. All he's done in regards to that scenario is laugh hysterically like the hyenas she saw at the Bronx zoo once.

She's brought back to reality as the good doctor kindly tells Agent Carter perhaps she'd be more comfortable up in the booth.

Leia's eyes turn before heading to the short treks of stairs which make such a difference, yet nobody seems to care. Rey suddenly makes a sign in the deaf people's symbols asking where the new nurse came from. Huh, that is peculiar. She's tempted to take the newcomer by the side and bring her in for interrogation but then Leia figures Rey's probably being paranoid, thanks in no small part to Lawrence and Darklighter dragging the short, thin yet spiritually strong young woman into their daft conspiracy plotting. Needa climbs into the pod, Leia sees her friend twitch and she worries that Nurse Kenobi's anemia will spike up and cause a seizure. Rey had one the last week, she just keeled over without any warning and kept crying from what must have been an indescribable pain to have the unbreakable Miss Kenobi in tears. Seeing Rey so helpless and uncharacteristically begging for Leia not to tell anyone she'd lost control of her bladder was the most terrifying ordeal Leia's ever witnessed and this is coming from a woman who was inches away from being discovered, arrested and possibly raped/killed by Nazis in Berlin while extracting Lor San Tekka.

A man hands Doctor San Tekka a microphone, he taps on the device to test the sound.

"Do you hear me? Is this on?" his voice echoing back is his answer. "Ladies and gentlemen, today we take not another step towards annihilation, but the first step on the path to peace. We begin with a series of micro injections into the subjects major muscle groups. The serum infusion will cause immediate cellular change. And then to stimulate growth, the subject will be saturated with Vita-Rays." _Holy Cow he did it, while San Tekka gathered everyone's attention Biggs switched the vial._

Lorth Needa is given a preliminary shot of penicillin, fear shows though his eyes but also resolution as Rey whispers something into the man's ear that must be comforting if the way his expression softens is related to those words.

They will ask Leia Organa in the 1952 interview, in the 1977 interview and the 1991 interview two questions in different ways over and over to the war hero/true feminism icon/ founder of S.H.I.E.L.D:

**What did you feel when the Hydra infiltrator designed as a nurse poisoned Lorth Needa's bloodstream with liquid cyanide disguised as penicillin before the serum affected him?**

**What did you feel when the other Hydra infiltrator shot Doctor San Tekka?**

She will answer in accordance to the sanctioned story of Captain America, the story without distrust and senseless rage and conspiracy and repressed yearnings for which God and marital law claimed was never hers to begin with. Leia will say she was saddened by the private and Doctor's deaths but consoled herself with the fact that the unofficial experiment on Captain America, on Rey Skywalker nee Kenobi who was used to test the limits of the serum's effects on the immune system was unharmed and thus preserving her old friend's work in a way he would have been proud of. They all gobble it up cause it sounds patriotic and unyielding and speaks of loyalty to freedom's pursuit unbroken: It is nothing even remotely close to the truth.

In the unsanctioned version of September 6, 1942, Agent Leia Organa doesn't get to look at the 'newly improved' version of America's new hope once she's freshly out of the pod next to Senator Holdo and General Madine. The photo of Rey entering the pod with serenity that's displayed on the Smithsonian, supposedly for the test is really from a series of mock photos she and Leia and Biggs performed behind everyone's back for a laugh. In real life Fred Clemson doesn't get yelled at by Lawrence San Tekka before the Hydra leech shoots him. The Hydra Nurse doesn't creep back into the shadows without making a sound.

The explosion which every governmental agency save S.H.I.E.L.D (and in their case the report will be for level 8 and up eyes only) will claim took place when everyone was safely outside is the first lie: Clemson pulled the trigger button for the bomb while she and General Madine were still inside, hoping to kill three birds with one stone by eliminating the serum, the super-soldier and the only US Commanding Officer that hadn't tossed Hydra in with all those lunatics from Berlin who disappeared in 1942 while searching for the Ark of the Covenant. Upon hearing the bomb tick Leia threw a chair at the window, they were both slightly smoked by the flames after jumping off the floor to escape certain death.

The second lie is how the super soldier Captain America chased down Fred Clemson who stole the last vial of the super serum which was destroyed after the epic fight involving nonhuman strength and speed: In the unsanctioned version of September 6, 1942 Leia Organa chased him down, shot him in the arm and strangled him with her bare hands after he shot Lawrence San Tekka in the stomach. While she was pursuing one fanatical Nazi mole the vial was taken by the Hydra nurse whom history would demote to a villainous chuckle in the background. 'Miss Pryce' would be detained not by a superhero but by an 80 pound, 5 foot nurse who reacted to Lorth Needa's mouth foaming and wrestled the culprit to the ground with a force no one thought her capable of.

Biggs will inform her later how Rey was shot by the Hydra nurse, how the young millionaire who'd never harmed a woman in his life shot Pryce in the brain with the unconscious Colonel Madine's gun and went to San Tekka with blood in his hands. And there surged the biggest lie of all: That Doctor San Tekka pointed to his 'perfect creation' and reminded her non-vocally she had to remain pure of heart, a good person before a good soldier. The 1992 film version of Captain America in which Rutger Hauer played Luke Skywalker and Jennifer Connelly played Rey will include a speech between her and Max von Sydow's Doctor San Tekka which spirals around the whole myth of that moment, and serve as a foreshadowing to his death for those less involved in their history. It will still be preferable to the entire 2010 film which changes Luke's age to 21 and leads to the elderly Leia Organa punching the director in the face. Sebastian Stan who played Luke actually assisted her in the deed since he kept trying to convince Rian Johnson to make him older with makeup to no avail.

In the real version San Tekka begs the young scientist to place Rey in the chamber with his dying breath. The now conscious Colonel Madine looks at the broken glass vial smeared with Miss Pryce's blood in confusion and asks what the hell Biggs is doing as he places the last of San Tekka's elixir on the pod for injection. He threatens to kill him if they try to stop him, no longer caring if he's detained for high treason. Leia will only find that last part out because she'll find him chained to the corridor by the Colonel for lying about the serum. Rey will be furious that he gets blamed for something she convinced him to do.

When Leia comes back she finds a Rey who is taller than her on a medical bed, having fainted from the sheer effort of surviving the shot and the serum breaking and reknitting her entire bone structure. She hears her friend mumbling, calling out for Luke in delirium. Leia pulls out a chair, sits next to her friend and weeps as she folds both hands in prayer.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hands out tin cup: Comments please?????


	8. Chapter 8

September 7, 1942, medical quarters of Secret Brooklyn Base (Rey's POV)

While she lies unconscious all Rey's mind conjures up is images of dead bodies. Some real and some from previous nightmares: Doctor San Tekka's lethal red rose blooming on her friend's stomach. The aimless eyes she closed in the TB ward taking care not to prolong contact lest her grandfather's fate be shared, Luke's beautiful cerulean eyes bloodshot as his body's spread face up on a ditch, Leia's charred corpse as she and Madine die from the blast, her grandfather's ashen form as he's laid to eternal rest. All these images cause her to turn and kick and scream as peace is denied to her in slumber.

Rey thinks she probably reopened her stitches with how much she writhes and shouts and begs for her husband to come in the middle of the night. Her hands, her knees and elbows; her whole body feels like it weighs too much as she twists in the medical bed which she recalls having much more space. At around 3 am Rey wakes up and has a glass of water, she sees a larger palm reach out for the drink and goes back to bed, wondering why her nightmares are now including alien possession or whatever it is you call a body that's not your own reflected upon your eyes. _'Luke, I'm so scared. I need you right now. I think this is my midnight trench._ _I need you to help me cover the hole.'_

She'll never say this to anyone out of fear they call her crazy, but once she goes back to sleep Rey **_senses_** her husband wrapping his strong and gentle arms around her shoulders. For a moment she **_sees_** the bright emerald Rey's always associated him with, only this time the emerald no longer limits itself to glowing, it **_pulses_** and _tingles_ at her skin and **_beckons_** her to join her pale blue with the vibrant green. It's the best dream she's had all month, even if it was but three hours and forty-five minutes long. When Rey wakes up at 7: 45 am in the morning she still feels too heavy though this is momentarily forgotten by the fact her oxygen inhalation is somehow operating at maximum capacity.

Throughout Rey’s 21 years, people have made fun of her for various reasons. The most common was always her asthma. Mr Plutt had said it would probably be better if she had an accident and died before Old Ben Kenobi was forced to leave behind a prematurely decrepit homeless spinster who wheezed her life away. Nobody had argued in her defense. Even among the medical community, some doctors thought her asthma was 'a hysterical reaction' to prevent working long hours. She'd never understood how they all claimed something was 'easy as breathing'. Not until now, when her lungs are inhaling and exhaling without the slightest difficulty or any sort of pain.

At first the young woman believes it's a miracle, but when her hands move to fold in thankful prayer to the Lord she sees the arms which move are not her own. Healthy toned appendages are being captured by her eyes instead of the wiry twigs that belong to Nurse Kenobi's frame. In frustrated confusion Rey touches the foreign limbs, trying to make sense of it all. She expects to feel her own body, ending the queer situation. What brushes against her fingertips is soft muscle that fits Leia more than it would her, she trails the strange organism somehow connected with her up to sense elbows that give away no bones, shoulders that don't shake at the smallest touch and are those normal sized breasts?! She doesn't have breasts, she's 'Thumbelina Rey', or 'my perfect petit-sized angel' if you ask Luke Skywalker, who's never had to buy a bra in her life!! Holy Joe! What's happened?!?!

The thrill of breathing easily is gone, replaced by the harrowing certainty that is no miracle. It's definitely a nightmare. Rey screams as a result and assumes a fetal position which only serves to make everything worse because her legs are also invasive limbs. Her thighs now clearly athletic and more like Betty Grable's than her legs could ever aspire to be **. God, please put an end to this nightmare, let this strange possession and Doctor San Tekka's death and the whole ordeal just be one quick series of nightly terrors.**

"Rey, are you feeling better?" While everything else has been enlarged Leia has shrunk, Rey's dear friend has to look up at her for a change. Thankfully, Leia's voice hasn't suffered any radical alterations; Rey clings to the melodic pitch of Agent Organa's vocal cords as if they held the key to her sanity. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. Who is she to say?

"Leia....what happened to me? The last thing I remember is watching Biggs kill that woman after she shot me. I lost consciousness pretty quick _." Leia please explain things in a way that won't sound scary, please hold me in your arms and let this dreadful sequence fade away._

"The super soldier serum worked," Leia says in her wavering voice. Her gentle tone tries to deliver an irreversible truth in the softest way impossible. She wants to deny it, to pull back the covers and cry herself to sleep like she did as a child but steels herself against that decision. This is the new reality, she'd best get used to it as quickly as possible.

"Leia. I want a mirror."

 "Let the nurses check your wound first."

" **Give me a damn mirror!!** "

Leia consents to the request, realizing she won't rest until the matter is dealt with. The face which stares back at her has the same eye color, the same hair, the same chin but her cheeks are no longer gaunt. They glow with a health which reminds Rey of her grandmother's portrait. For the first time people might see the image next to her and notice they're related. This is the body her father claimed she would eventually grow in one of the few memories she has of him. Klaus Obi-Wan Kenobi Kryze (Korkie for short) had always claimed his daughter was a bud yet to bloom, and even if the flower only grew inwards to her gifted brain it was of little consequence. The right man would recognize the sweet nectar regardless of how deeply it hid. What would her father think of this new body? Would he hug her and say this is who she meant to be? Would her beloved grandfather approve of this change or would he call it the whole process an unholy transgression and try to exorcise her back into her 'pure state'?

In that moment Rey's thoughts drift from the might-have-been exorcism scenario with her dearly departed grandfather to a frightening possibility that's much more likely to take place: that Luke Skywalker, her confidant and lover, and the only man who admired her the way she was, won't recognize her new movie star figure. Won't reconcile his beloved wife as is she is now with the gaunt, rectangle-shaped frame he'd loved and kissed reverently so many times. She pictures him on a battlefield again, face bruised and bleeding out as he quietly calls out her name. The difference is this time she's there as part of the combat nurses on the front. She imagines holding his hand and telling Luke she's here, that she's made it to him and God be willing she'll **never** leave his side again as long as they both shall live. Luke stares at his wife in the alien body God _didn't_ grant her. His gaze is one of kindness and really she can't picture him being  anything but kind and loving and good but not one of recognition.

Rey begins to hyperventilate as her mind conjures up the image of Luke asking if 'his Rey' is all right, his lovely blue eyes welling up with tears because when she insists that she **IS HIS REY** , angry and tired and just wanting him to recognize her. Wants them both to stop missing one another needlessly when they're only a hug or very passionate kiss away. Her hyperventilating grows as Luke replies she's a very sweet girl but she doesn't have to pretend for his sake and dies before finishing the sentence. She doesn't want that scenario to unfold. She'd rather die by having the Nazis dissect her than watch as that tragedy unwraps itself. And no, she's not being dramatic conscience: 'I've always been willing to die for Luke!!!'

A pair of strong arms engulfs her; Rey's frantic brain still manages to catch the scent of Leia's English Rose hand cream. Leia's arms are warm as her ivory white pulses though not as honed or potent as Luke's emerald felt in her dream. An hour later Biggs will come with the news Colonel Madine decided to forgive them both the 'sleight of hand' and told Senator Holdo the whole thing was actually a ploy designed in case someone infiltrated the project, though Biggs's roaming privileges are now shortened cause the Colonel didn't take too kindly to having a gun pointed at his head. Darklighter finds both women holding one another, as if sheltering the other from the coming storm.

..........He will write in his diary years later that he wondered if Rey knew their days together were counted from that moment on.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hands out tin cup: comments please????


	9. Chapter 9

September 8, 5pm, Unknown Hydra Headquarters somewhere in Europe (Sheev Palpatine's POV)

He finds the men sent by the Fuhrer to be slightly above circus monkeys. Such a shame really they feel Hydra is undeserving of more than below average intellect. General Franco* was greeted by both Himmler and the Fuhrer himself for the ultimately failed negotiations with the Spanish whelp who claimed the British would never stop fighting and chose neutrality. If he'd been faking it to back-stab the Allies or the Third Reich then Palpatine would have praised his intelligence but no, El Generalisimo wants to 'put his people first' and mend the war wounds. As if war's magnificent trace was a thing to be cleansed. Schneider, Roeder and Hutter are oblivious to his delightfully macabre thoughts as Sheev leads them to face Hugo Damask. They fall for the image of a sniveling scientist completely; perhaps someday he'll meet an individual besides his master that perceives the ruse for what it is.

_Oh joy!' Fool number one, better known as Hutter, is about to waste oxygen and speak_. "The Führer is not accustomed to being ignored, Herr Damask. He funds your research because you promised him weapons."

_Now, Schneider, or more accurately fool number two._ "You serve at his pleasure. He gave you this facility as a reward for your injuries."

Ah yes, the story he and Damask fabricated to hide the truth behind how far San Tekka's research had come. It was one of their best play-acting efforts to date. Hego moaning in the ground and Palpatine secretly filling a syringe with a mixture of several toxic chemicals that they claimed the 'good doctor' had injected into General Damask as the filthy Jewish doctor sought to escape. Their expressions were so flawless no medic even bothered to examine just what he'd placed on the syringe.

His master scoffs, a glint of wonderfully gruesome joy crossing his Aura which allows Sheev to know he's remembering the day in which his powers increased tenfold. The glint is lost to all but the master and apprentice as General Damask decides the day must have some degree of intelligent conversation.

"Reward? Call it what it is. Exile. I no longer reflect his image of Aryan perfection."

Roeder tries to give a look of knowing when they've taken him for a dunce. It's met with little success. "You think this is about appearances? Your Hydra division has failed to deliver so much as a rifle in over a year. And we have learnt through local intelligence you mounted a full-scale incursion into Norway.”

Schneider goes next, droll yet agitated. "The Führer feels... How does he put it? ' **The Grey Skull has been indulged long enough**!'"

Damask smirks, a grim and beautiful thing. Sheev can see him cogging out different ways to kill these measly parasites. What a marvelous thing to behold before supper.

"Gentlemen, you have come to see the results of our work. Let me show you. [They enter the lab.] Hitler speaks of a thousand year Reich, but he cannot feed his army for a month. His troops spill their blood across every field in Europe. But still he is no closer to achieving his goals."

Roeder jokingly exclaims surely Herr Damask doesn't expect to win this war using magic to fight against the Allies. His master addresses the occult by its proper name: science. Though he can understand the officer's confusion.

"Great power has always baffled primitive men. Hydra is assembling an arsenal to destroy my enemies in one stroke. Where ever they are, regardless of how many forces they possess. All in a matter of hours."

"Your enemies?"

Schneider's lips curl into a sickeningly pleased curl which shows just how little his ape-like mind understood. No wonder his master expresses remorse at the death of his enemies in the opposing side of their mystical war. At least the sniveling Jedi were capable of recognizing true power lurking beneath Damask's exhibit.

“Thank you, Damask."

 "For what?"

 "For making it clear how obviously mad you are."

In a rare display of intelligence, Hutter examines the maps around him rather than stand in moronic silence as his companions do. Sheev watches the man's eyes widen in delicious terror, laden with apprehensive fury.

" **Berlin is on this map**!!"

 Damask grins in amusement, "So it is."

"You will be punished for your insolence! You will be brought before the Führer himself!"

That unrealistic goal is the last sentence to emerge from Hutter's lips before he falls prey to the power he had mocked less than a minute ago. Schneider actually manages to run away a little before the Tesseract's wondrously painful rays of blue destruction catch up to him. Roeder is the last to perish, he yells Damask's name in a comical mix of fear, rage and desperation. Oh, what a fine day it's been.

His master says these words to create a false image within the men of the foot soldiers, not to offer any true apology. Let them think Sheev Palpatine is naught but a bumbling, awkward man who traced this path for science and ended up in a deal with the devil. He believes in Hydra, but little by little, Sheev grows more convinced they're using the wrong kind of weapons, fighting the wrong type of war. When it's his turn to rule, Hydra operations shall be different, quite different. The doctor pretends to slouch and adds a gleam of terror to his eyes.

"H-ha-hail Hydra!!!"

‘Oh, what fools these mortals be.'*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *On 23 October 1940, Hitler and Franco met in Hendaye in France to discuss the possibility of Spain's entry on the side of the Axis. It ended with Franco saying that, as the leader of a destroyed and bankrupt country in chaos following a brutal three-year civil war, simply had little to offer the Axis and that the Spanish armed forces were not ready for a major war. He compromised by allowing Spaniards to fight for the Germans if they wished (Batallon Azul).   
> *Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream, yes I headcanon Palpatine as a Shakespeare fan in our world.


	10. Chapter 10

September 9, 10am, SSR base in New York (Rey's POV)

The 'old Rey' would have fainted from so much blood taken from her, that's one of the few things she's certain of. She always liked watching the dark red liquid swirl inside the tube and into the crystal vials on the year she was completely bed-ridden with rheumatic fever. Her ten year old brain made-believe the process was really a magic potion's ingredient collection and the doctor was really a wizard bestowing upon her the great honor of being chosen for the alchemy. Doctor's Plo Koon's funny shaped beard and the genie hat he wore to make the children laugh, reinforced that childish fantasy. It didn't stop her from getting woozy if they took the standard dosage or crying because the needle hurt so badly but it helped to keep the boredom at bay once she ran out of things to count.

She barely notices the needle's pinch now, her new skin doesn't have the same fragility. The nurse who slowly recollects 'samples' is far too solemn for Rey to picture her in a merry role within her imagination. Leia continues to prove her innate queenliness by keeping a perfect posture and poised nods as the nurse retires, saying they've reached the medical limit for blood donations. Rey knows it's a lie, they took twice the amount legally permitted but she was too numb to care.

Rey looks at her friend who was kind enough to lend some clothes till further notice while she re-stitches her clothes to fit again. Most of her wool and cotton clothing can be adapted, slightly enlarged to fit her new figure but the lovely eggplant dress she'd worn to the Science Expo is not so fortunate. The velvet material would have to be sent to a fancy tailor and she can't afford it. She's reluctant to ask Biggs for anything and not because he saved her life. Rey understands why he put her into his infernal device but part of her still feels like he committed murder with her old body. It's complicated, to say the least.

The young woman pulls down the short sleeve in her (Leia's) brown rayon, white dotted pattern dress with jeweled buttons. She stares at the cart holding the crystal vials, noting how this time it is the doctors and military men who search for fantastical results.

"Think they got enough Leia?"

"Any hope of reproducing a program code for the serum is locked in your genetic code. But without Dr. San Tekka, it would take years."

Lawrence San Tekka, who started this research to cure advanced tuberculosis, will instead be remembered for creating a 'super soldier serum'. History will forget the man who could play a trumpet like Louis Armstrong, the man who baked Apple Strudel with diced walnuts and slapped Biggs Darklighter when he tried to sneak a slice, the man who cried himself to sleep every night but never said much about his grief to spare others the weight of his sorrows.

"He deserved more than this."

Leia holds her hand, warm but **thankfully** free of pity. "If it could only work once, he'd be proud it was you."

They don't say anything else. Agent Organa goes to reconvene with Colonel Madine, who was investigating the Hydra submarine they'd found after their CO ordered a 10 mile perimeter search. Rey tags along, having nothing better to do since they're not letting her renew her nursing duties till she's 'recovered' from all the blood recollections. She avoids looking at Biggs, not knowing what to feel or say. What would be the appropriate answer: _Thank you for risking jail to save me? I didn't think you cared deeply enough to threaten a Colonel so you could save me? I hate you saved me because last night I dreamt we won this war and my husband walked right past me to stay seated at the train bench for days or weeks waiting till he accepted I was dead?_ So many answers but none of them seem right. It's a blessing that Darklighter's gaze directs the whole of his attention to the strange technology whilst Mrs Holdo bickers with Madine.

"Colonel Madine, my husband's committee is demanding answers."

"Excellent. Why don't we start with how a German spy got a ride to my secret installation in your car?"

Senator Holdo's wife stays deadly quiet, her long salmon dress stops moving. The only indication of life the tall, blonde haired and pencil shaped woman gives is to fold her arms when the Colonel is not looking. Her giant fox fur cuffs make the sight even more comical. 'What was the lady thinking when she put on that rich garment to enter a military establishment?' Even Biggs thinks it was a ridiculous notion, if the way he stared and struggled to suppress a chuckle at her evening gown spoke true. Colonel Madine's glare is all that's needed for Darklighter to begin his report.

"Speaking modestly, I'm the best mechanical engineer in this country. But I don't know what's inside this thing or how it works. We're not even close to this technology."

Lesser women who keep track of Biggs's technological inventory the way Mrs. Skywalker does, would cower in fear from such a declaration. Rey Kenobi and Leia Organa resolve themselves to make sure this type of mechanical horror is never used on civilians on their watch. The Senator's wife loses a touch of color on her face at the implications, though she's quick to mask it under a façade of high and mighty airs.

"The Italians and Japanese don't have this technology, now Darklighter says it's not one of ours. Who does have this technology, Colonel?"

"Hydra. I'm sure you've been reading our briefings."

"I'm on a number of committees, Colonel."

 Leia chooses that moment to break her silence and walk towards the small crowd. In Rey's opinion the SSR agent outshines Mrs. Holdo in her classy yet utilitarian style uniform. Rey thinks the older woman's gaze towards Leia is wistful, as if the brunette somehow embodies a road not taken for the non-elected politician. "Hydra is the Nazi deep science division. It's led by Hego Damask. But he has much bigger ambitions."

The Colonel looks at his protégé in approval. Say what you will about Madine, the man is a jewel for admiring people based on their abilities regardless of their reproductive organs' purpose. "Hydra's practically a cult. They worship Damask, they think he's invincible."

Holdo's eyes nod in understanding, Rey thinks maybe the over-dressed woman's not so bad. After all, she's a dame in a man's word. It's only natural she had to develop a thick skin to survive. Perhaps the fancy clothing is an armor of sort for her.

"What are you gonna do about it then?"

Madine places his hands to the back. "I spoke to the President this morning. As of today the SSR is being retasked."

Biggs, Leia and Rey all stare at their superior in stupefaction for a moment until Leia dares to speak Madine's rank out loud to question this new set of instructions.

"We are taking the fight to Hydra. Pack your bags Agent Organa. You too, Darklighter. You're flying to Europe tonight."

 ** _Europe:_** the stage for her grandparents's romance; the land where Luke's last letter implied he was heading; the place where San Tekka's murderers prepare to outdo Hitler in terms of evil. Rey might never be with her husband again but that doesn't mean she won't do her damn best to keep him and as many as possible safe from these god-playing fascists.

"Sir, if you're going after Damask, I want in."

The Colonel's gaze is a perplex blend of tiredness, incredulity and battle-worn cynicism. "You're the last remaining piece of San Tekka's work, ergo much too valuable to be lost in a battlefield. Miss Kenobi, you're going to Alamogordo."

Before she was too frail to be sent into the front, they all thought she would perish halfway through the journey overseas from chickenpox or some other deadly disease. Now she's in perfect health, if the molecular studies prove true, then she's immune to chickenpox. Unbelievable: she fought an undercover agent, almost died and kept her mouth shut about their secret organization yet they still don't let her travel overseas. What does she have to do so they grant her access to the front, put on tapping shoes and dance backup for the Andrew Sisters?!?

"With all due respect Sir, I think my medical knowledge could be a valuable asset to th-"

 "I asked for an army and all I got was you. You are not sufficient for Hydra's downfall."

She's biting down the urge to grab Madine by the chest and throttle him when Mrs. Holdo takes her aside, her fox cuffs hiding Rey's palms completely. They tickle so she has stifle a giggle until the politician's removed her sleeves from the young woman's hands.

"With all due respect to the Colonel, I think we may be missing the point. Miss Kenobi: I've seen how you inspire people to go the extra mile. Your friend, Agent Organa, for example."

Mrs. Holdo's aide shows Rey a newspaper. 'The New York Examiner' headlines read: "Nazis in New York - brought down by Brooklyn's secret Valkyrie"'. The face is fuzzy. Only someone who spends an absurd amount of time with Leia would recognize it's her; because of the earrings she wears every Thursday.

Because the photo is so hard to ascertain most historians will not question the statement from the newspaper in 1956 saying the woman in the photograph is Captain America herself. Agent Coulson will, because of this they'll break Phil’s nose in 3rd grade.

"The enlistment lines have been around the block since this picture hit the newsstands. You don't take a _soldier,_ a **_symbol_** like that, and hide her in a lab. Miss, do you want to serve your country on the most important battlefield of the war?"

Her heart skips a beat at the thought of finding her way back to Luke. Seeing his face beyond a photograph, touching his calloused hands and just maybe him kissing her cause he recognizes her and loves her still. "Ma'am, that's all I want."

"Then, congratulations. You just got promoted."

A week later when they start designing her costume Rey laughs, cause her inner joke was in the right: she does have to wear tapping shoes to reach the front.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hands out tin cup: comments pleaseeee???????


	11. Chapter 11

September 14, 2pm- December 31, 1942, from Carnegie Hall to Italy (Rey's POV)

The tailors and stylists are very sweet, she thinks. One of them offers a cigarette for the nerves, then takes out smelling salts once they see she might fall unconscious on the floor and/or hyperventilate. She keeps comparing the hairstylist's cherry red painted nails with Luke's plain yet steady hands as Miss Winger curls her now thicker hair. It's easier for Alexandra to work with these thick locks than it ever was for Luke to braid her thin and easily knotted strands. The thought of him makes Rey feel even guiltier. The fact she hasn't told her husband anything. Colonel Madine explicitly stated the results of San Tekka's work be highly-classified until the war is over.

As a result,  all those present during the event now have their packages, letters and purchases under supervision. The only positive thing about it so far is complaining about the absolute lack of privacy to Biggs eased them back into conversation, and they're starting to mend. But even if the army wasn't monitoring her correspondence, she wouldn't know what to say. _'Darling, I got shot by a Nazi and they saved my life by injecting muscle juice. Please don't turn deserter and rush home to make sure I'm recovering properly? Luke, I don't have to stand on my toes to kiss you anymore because I grew seven inches and gained twenty pounds?'_ The end result is a stack of unsent letters in her suitcase next to his stack of sent letters she presses to her heart every night and wants to press now as they send her off to the stage.

Her chest tightens, the phantom tingle of an asthma attack pangs at her. Jesus H Roosevelt, how on earth is she supposed to follow suit with this foolish plan?

"I don't know if I can do this."

Mrs Holdo's aide sends her a reassuring smile. "Nothing to it. Sell off a few bonds, bonds buy bullets, bullets kills Nazi's. Bing bang boom. You're an American hero, or heroine in your case. "

"It's just not how I pictured getting there."

The aide looks around to see if anyone's listening before he speaks this time, "Look kid, you think I like spending my days helping Amilyn choose what perfume highlights her dress so she can charm people into joining the war effort? No, but I'm a 4-F which means I gotta settle for this to do my part. We all gotta compromise to get what we want in life. Holdo's got a lot of pull up on the hill. You play ball with us, you'll be leading your own platoon in no time. Take the shield."

In 1968 Amylin Holdo will receive a medal by the National Organization for Women. They will praise her for daring to label a female who was publically thought to be unmarried 'Captain' on national propaganda, thus placing a stepping stone on the way to women's admission into the Armed Forces. While Mrs Holdo did work towards that goal in the post WWII society, it was not her idea to call the young Rey Kenobi a military rank.

The real origin for 'Captain America' is nothing more than a slip of the tongue, caused by a stage-frightened Rey who resorted to keeping her handmade soldier dolly inside her skirt's pockets for courage. Luke had given it to her as a motivation to get better on his leave she couldn't enjoy with him because her **_stupid_** scarlet fever didn't let her so much as touch him. Luke claimed the doll had special powers. Captain Rex paid for the bright orange fabric to make up for laughing at her, though he'd said (joked) it should have been red silk instead of good-fortune wishing orange cause red was the color brides wear on China. Rey took it as a compliment and wanted to name the dolly after Luke's CO but he refused so she compromised by calling it 'Captain America'. It is the doll's name; she says to a surprise-stricken stage and causes the choir to improvise, using bits of the cancelled ideas to create the Iconic 'Cap's Theme Song'.

Holdo's moniker of 'Lady Liberty' is left behind in a dusty cabinet, and a ten thousand dollar campaign gets completely remodeled once throes of little girls say they've never felt more powerful than when they pictured the possibility of becoming 'Captain America' one day. When the show's done, Rey expects to be fired because she said the wrong name and half the crowd (at least in her head) grimaced to see how abysmally she tap-danced on those lovely red slouch ankle boots. Instead Amilyn calls her a genius and adds three whole dollars to her salary.

Her film is the first time in American History a woman is pictured as the logical choice for a battle leader and not a comical relief. Or whimsical feel-good device like the child star Shirley Temple's film 'The Littlest Colonel'. In the new show she still tap dances, only this time it's just for the intro where she performs a duo with an actor who plays Uncle Sam and calls her 'the apple of Liberty's eye'. After, she does her usual speech dressed in her white & red colored blouse with long sleeves and navy blue pleated skirt decorated with stars. Halfway through the speech a man disguised as Hitler sneaks up on her, attacks her and gets fake-punched. The censors allow it because they relish the idea of Adolf being so weak, even a girl can knock him out cold.

She goes through Buffalo, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and other cities with this routine. She only makes it to one town past New York before Luke inquires in his letter why her care-package had a different postal code. Luke's next paragraph in that letter says that he called for item 65, section B of the SSR manual so if she's being censored that won't be a problem anymore. The SSR representative has a fit and tries to cancel her tour, furious she withheld information from them, but Luke had prepared for that as well. His letter had also included item 12, section G of the manual which established if the spouse of said member agreed to it then female volunteers were not obliged to disclose their marital status. She writes a box of letters that night, applying her grandfather's old saying to them.

From a certain point of view, one could say she was motivated by Biggs to test a new medical treatment so she's breathing much better now. From a certain point of view, one can say she's become an active part of 'Captain America's campaign’ which is why she's moving constantly. The rest of it is details about the people she's meeting in these states. That at least she can tell freely. In her last letter before heading to Europe, she presses a kiss to the paper and prays they'll see each other soon.

Europe was a place of sun-lit fields and merry orchards in her grandfather's stories. In real life, the fields are muddy, left colder still with the rain and the orchards are plundered. Half the soldiers leer more than actually hear what she has to say. The other half gets heart-broken when she takes her glove off to show the small gold band in her ring finger. The end result is a miserable young woman who's clutching a sketchpad with dancing monkeys when she's interrupted by the god-blessed sight of Agent Leia Organa on her way to the medical tents so she can inquire about Luke.

"Hello Leia. Did Biggs manage to get you permission to come here?"

"Officially, I'm not here at all. That's much more fun."

"True, sticking to the rules gets pretty tiresome."

"If you believe that why are you playing along with politicians? What happened to the girl who wanted to make a difference?"

"Bond sales take a ten percent bump in every state I visit."

"I think the rain's damaged my senses because I'm seeing Rey Kenobi but she sounds like Amilyn Holdo."

"At least she's got me doin' this. Madine would have had me stuck in labs."

"So those are your only options: a lab rat or a flag-wearing Betty Grable? **You were meant for more**."

Their conversation is halted by the blaring horn of an ambulance as it arrives with wounded soldiers. Rey and Leia turn around to watch. She doesn't comment the men look like they've been through hell. She's too busy running to the sight of Private Ralter, who she clearly remembers as part of her husband's regiment. The young man is still recuperating from surgery, so Rey gets nothing from the morphine-doused soldier. Captain Needa is the one who tells her about hell-sent weapons which fired on both Allied and Nazi forces on Azzano, reassuring her he's not crazy and what he saw was real. Afterwards. Leia does't have to guess where Rey's headed. They race towards Colonel Madine with no apprehension. Said man looks upon Rey in full annoyance.

"I don't have time for star-spangled gals with a plan, Miss Kenobi. You wanna do something useful? Go tend to the wounded _." He called me Miss Kenobi, Holdo didn't inform him that it should be Mrs Skywalker...._

 "Sir, I need the casualty list from Azzano."

"Seems you already tended to them. Use your experience and try to explain to the FNG's, it's not their fault the battle was lost."

 "I just need one name Sir: Lieutant Colonel Luke Skywalker, in charge of the one-oh-seventh."

She probably sounds pathetic, but Rey doesn't care. Without hesitating she'll beg and borrow and curse until her grandfather and parents's angels wish her dead if it means that she'll know what happened to Luke. The Colonel's stare loses its hard edges, replaced with a pity that only serves to infuriate her.

Madine sighs before continuing to speak. "Colonel Luke Skywalker saved my life along with the rest of the fifth regiment. He defied orders and got himself court-martialed for doing the right thing. If the world were fair then he'd the one in this tent or higher up. Believe me when I tell you, I wish we could rescue him but I can't send men who've just been through hell to fight weapons we have no idea how to beat. "

Rey sees it from his point of view in that moment, using the military tactic lessons taught to her by Benjamin Kenobi and continued under Luke Skywalker: good men caught thirty miles behind the lines. Through the most heavily fortified territory in Europe. Which happens to be using technology forged by Satan's fires. Madine would lose more men than he'd save, any squad would be spotted instantly. It would take a one man operative to get inside and even the n- Rey says her parting in respect to her Commanding Officer and pretends she'll be compliant to his wishes. The Colonel doesn't know her well enough to perceive the lie, Leia is a completely different story.

Agent Organa follows Rey to his tent where he starts to change and pack some things: a medical kit, couple of guns, bullets, a water canteen and her soldier dolly for good luck cause it's never failed her so far.

"What do you plan to do Rey? Walk to Austria?"

"If that's what it takes."

"Rey...I know what Luke means to you but you heard the Colonel: he's most likely dead."

She slams the chest which held her dolly shut. "A normal man might be dead by now: Luke Skywalker joined the army in 1916 when he was 15 years old. Normal teenagers get killed by tanks so horrible they're called death stars by the trench men. Luke blew one up and that reached the ears of Colonel Typho who took him under wing. Normal 18 year men grow bitter and hard when they find out their fathers helped build Armenian labor camps. Luke convinced his father to delay the mass executions on one camp in time for the American troops to come because he got it into his thick skull there was still good in him. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Trust me when I say that Luke is alive, death doesn't know how to handle him yet."

Leia stares at her, half wondering how the hell Rey can attract so many remarkable people in such short periods of time and half wondering why the hell she didn't connect Rey's Luke Skywalker with the Private Luke Skywalker who told her parents they were safe as the Americans led them to safety. Though Rey doesn't know it, Leia decides to pay back the debt in that moment because Madine's right: the world isn't fair. Which means people have to work for the fairness to be equally distributed.

 

"Rey: Did I mention Biggs is here? He brought his own plane. If we catch him before your show starts in an hour then no one will be looking until later next morning. Especially if we bribe a chorus girl to dissappear..."

" **Leia, you're a genius**!!"

As expected, Biggs Darklighter is crazy or brave enough to fly them through not-quite-Nazi infested airspace. When she says they're going to save Luke, he flies at a faster pace and forgoes his typical friendly flirting. Though he does tell Leia he shares the opinion Luke's not dead. Rey crosses herself for good measure and thinks about the math behind the plane so her illogical notions of the aircraft falling mid-air vanish.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hands out tin cup: comments please????


	12. Chapter 12

Six hours after last chapter, Austrian countryside

 For someone who claims she fears nothing, Leia shakes a lot when the plane bumps every now and then. Rey tells that to Leia in an effort to calm down her friend's mood. The response is Agent Organa replying she's perfectly fine with airplanes, it's Darklighter's piloting skills that have her on edge. Said pilot pretends to be insulted but the worried smile betrays him.

 "I never did thank you for saving my life, Biggs."

 "You can thank me when we're all safe and sound. You, me, Luke, Leia, hell even Colonel Madine and that evil nurse Maz you talked about are invited to fondue in Laverne if we survive."

Leia rolls her eyes, half amused and half wishing he took himself more seriously. Though in future, when that happens, she'll regret wishing it at all. "The Hydra camp is in Krausberg, tucked between these two mountain ranges. It's a factory of some kind. "

"I should be able to drop you both right on the doorstep."

 "Both?"

 "You don't know I'm letting you face a bunch of crazy megalomaniac Nazis alone. Do you?"

 "Hell, I'd go with you girls if I could but I still haven't got the autopilot model done so someone needs to make sure we don't crash."

In spite of the perilous situation, Rey smiles. She smiles because she is grateful for the earnest friends God has granted her. Biggs hands her the transponder he's been testing all month and she notices a prop shield in the back of the plane. She takes it for safety, with crazy blue lightning guns you need all the protection you can get. Leia helps her adjust the parachute. Agent Organa slips Rey's dolly into her jacket's inner zipped pockets. Really, they don't make better best friends than Leia Organa. At least that's what Rey thinks as Leia puts on her own parachute to dive.

The plane starts receiving bullet fire, the two women share a conspirational look before Rey opens the aircraft's door. Leia shows her how to open the parachute and jumps, once again leaving the rest of them to wonder how her hair stayed so pristine whilst performing acts of daring. 'Okay, first time jumping off a moving and flying vehicle. No big deal, people do it all the time in movies. I can do this, I can do this-.'

"As soon as I'm free, you turn this thing around and get the hell outta here!"

"Hey, I'm doing this out of friendship. Doesn't mean you can give me orders."

"The hell I can't! I'm a Captain!"

Her fall is jumbled, chaotic, and absolutely makes her want to learn how to use one of those gliders she saw in a postcard. Less than twenty feet away Leia takes off her parachute, sans the leaves and scraped twigs Rey picked up on the way down.' It's official: I need a lot more training.' Once both ladies have safely hidden the parachutes they run as quietly as possible through the woods. Rey wishes she were seeing the lands so similar to her copy of the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales under happier circumstances.

The good news is that Hydra bases operate the same way as witch's hour at Brooklyn hospitals: with skeleton crews who are so focused on trying to pretend nobody’s exhausted, they can’t notice how two women get into the back of a truck, knock out the guards in said automobile, and proceed to put on their masks and blend in amongst the bad guys. That last part is Leia's idea, Rey would punch her way in and out but yields to the experienced member of their two-man rescue party. The bad news is that Hydra uniforms smell like their god-forsaken German cologne.

Rey hears soldiers talking, for once she's actually glad for the serum's new developments as her new eidetic memory allows her to use Ben Kenobi's German lessons her old self could barely recall and unearth them to translate the current conversation. The soldiers talk of a Valkyrie. She wonders what the Norse female warriors of myth and legend could possibly have to do with this operation until she remembers Doctor San Tekka describing how Damask saw ancient folklore as truth even more fiercely than Himmler, how he wanted to harness the supernatural through science. For a brief second Rey wonders if 'Valkyrie' means her, if they're discussing some elaborate plan to kidnap her and brainwash her somehow. Then she gets back to reality, remembering she's too small a cog in this game for such high conspiracies.

The young woman's halfway through the missile heads when 'something' calls to her in a table. The closest thing she's ever felt to this sensation is the dreams of Luke's phantom emerald light holding her in his arms these months, only it's much less intimate, far less human than those nighttime bereavement hallucinations. She walks almost thoughtlessly to the table, as if whatever this is somehow turned her into a puppet and is pulling the strings. The table has blue shining cartridges, the neon glint a siren song. Picking the strange piece up is done thoughtlessly, if not for Leia grabbing her hand and saying they have to keep moving Rey would have, for reasons unknown to her, started dismantling the glowing instrument and pressed the shining element close to her breast.

Afterwards she berates herself for getting hypnotized by a fancy blue light in the middle of a factory run by megalomaniac fascists. Luke can't afford her to dally around. Every second she wastes is a possible torture needle in his arm or a bullet in her husband's skin. Thankfully she doesn't fall for any more distractions as she follows Leia who speaks in perfect German to say they're here for the late night shift. At first it seems to be working, the officer directs them to the cells where they see French, British, American and surprisingly a few Nazi uniforms.

Then of course, Rey's combined Skywalker and Kenobi luck catches up with them and the officer asks for their papers. Rey knocks him out with her shield before he can figure out the truth, while Leia combs through the files to find out what they're using all these POWs for. Captain America takes the keys off the unconscious Hydra guard and opens the cells. Prisoners start pouring out as she loses the disguise to reveal the flag get up.

A dark-skinned American prisoner with a moustache looks at her, trying to make sense of the bizarre situation unraveling before his eyes.

“Who are you supposed to be?"

There are so many ways she could respond, 'I'm Rey Kenobi, I'm Mrs Skywalker, I'm a propaganda tool and an accidental 'super soldier'.....' But in the end what comes out of her mouth is, "I'm Captain America."

"I beg your pardon?" The question comes from a blonde, gray eyed English prisoner whom she can practically smell the elite class upbringing from, though the fact he hasn't tried desperately to keep his hair clean as well as the fact his hands are just as red from the hard labor as everybody else's tattles he's not one of those awful self-absorbed blue-bloods who think they're entitled to the world in exchange for doing nothing. 'Apparently, no one I meet anymore fits any national presumptions.'

Said blue-blood recognizes Leia and calls her 'My dear princess'. Her friend calls the English gentleman Isolder, that prompts her to recognize the name from Leia's stories of special ops training. Major Isolder Djo of His Majesty's 3rd Independent Parachute Brigade, also served as a SSR piloting instructor. Agent Organa had described him as bold, tenacious and all around a decent chap even if he did listen to his mother a tad too much.

A black haired man in a bowler hat stares at a wobbling figure slowly standing up from the cells. Rey goes to make sure this prisoner won't kill what she thinks will be another Nazi but is really an Arabic youth.

"Are we taking everybody?"

The youth steadies his stance, raising his dog tags. Terrified yet tilting his head upwards to portray a sense of confidence that he wants for himself.

"My name's Bodhi Rook, and I'm from Clifton."

Rey smiles, seeing her old self in this youth trying to set the impossible odds in his favor. She looks around at the empty cells, at the multi-faceted silhouettes tied together by a shared tiredness and an itch to get even with their oppressors. None of them are her husband.

"Is there anybody else? I'm looking for a Lieutenant Colonel, Luke Skywalker."

Isolder, the bowler hat gentleman and the African American fellow whose name she must find out all widen their eyes in recognition. Rey notices the last one has a trace of guilt in his gaze when he hears her husband's name.

"They took him to an isolation ward in the factory but no one's ever come back from it."

The guilt in the dark skinned man's gaze is no longer a mystery to Rey as she realizes how few African American are left among the prisoners. It's well known the Nazis see non Caucasian individuals as less than human. Loads of cartoons depicting Negroes as apes bring that message loud and clear. They must have taken this man's unit for experimentation, designing to test their poisons on the 'least valuable' prisoners and if this man was Luke's cellmate then he probably (definitely) did something so they would take him instead. **_'Damn it Luke!!! You're not making any easier for me to rescue you!!!'_**

'A wife's got to do what a wife's got to do'. "All right boys. Follow Agent Organa to the tree line northwest, 80 yards past the gate. Get out fast and give 'em hell. I'll meet you guys in the clearing with anybody else I find."

The dark skinned gentleman stares at her friend and speaks.

 "Miss Orga-“

 "Agent."

 "Agent Organa: does she know what she's doing?"

"Of course: she's knocked out Adolf Hitler over two hundred times."

Rey holds back the urge to shake her head amusingly at Leia as she runs through the corridors. Her heart beats so quick it must resemble a hum more than the average human thump-thump. She kicks several doors open and screams at the sight of deformed corpses, some plagued by uneven limb growth, orangutan arms stretching out for help and others with large tumors all over their bodies, all of them pleading still through their faded irises. 'I'm sorry I didn't save you, I'm so so sorry.' For the first time she considers the possibility Luke is dead, this seems an evil too large for even him to survive.

She starts hyperventilating, breath heavy under the weight of these savageries. That's when she feels it: Luke's emerald, river smooth and calming though slightly weakened. Forgoing all logic, Rey follows the presence, the trail which sends her pictures of her seven year old self, a thin little girl offering a gumball ring; her 17 old self working on a wedding dress which was mostly sewn from lace she scavenged from the trash at 14 after some rich lady discarded the lovely fabric. Images which flash through her head, somewhat drowsily, as if she were drugged. She keeps following the ever-pulsing emerald that carries out different memories through the corridors.

Rey is at the end of those horror-house corridors when she catches a glimpse of a man wearing a black coat. His color is a freezing black which makes her want to run away from him. Despite the fact he bears no intimidating feature,s Rey is more afraid of him than she'd be of Hitler himself. Something deep within her bones tells her to shoot him, stop this odd fellow with the paper-loaded suitcase. Maybe she should, after all he's probably the one who committed all those terrible murders-

"Lieutenant Colonel. 12557...." 'Luke!!!'

She finds her husband strapped to a chair, just like the ones where the mutated corpses were left to rot. His hair has gone almost completely gray, leaving only a few strands of vibrant gold. 'Oh my darling, what did those monsters do to you?' She doesn't waste any more time pondering about how Luke's forehead is burning or how his arms have so many needle traces an outsider would assume he's a morphine addict. What matters is making sure he's all right. Or as right as he can be expected to be in these ghastly conditions.

Rey unstraps him from the chair, measuring his pulse by the wrist. He's lost an unhealthy amount of weight; she hasn't seen him this skinny since she was 16. "Luke? Can you walk? Please talk to me..."

"No more please...."

She bares her teeth. 'Oh, now I'm going to kill Damask myself!!' "Luke, it's me....its Rey: your wife Rey." _'Please know me, please know me, I don't want to live without you.....'_

The emerald bursts, something inside her blooms and she sees her pale blue merge ever so slightly with the vibrant green. A symphony of color, unfolding in transparent notes only her and Luke's ears seem to perceive. The melody flourishes, embedding itself into her soul. It ends with a tone, harp-like sound.

Luke smiles, disbelief and sheer wonder shown upon his face. "Rey: how are you here?"

 **'Oh! Thank you Lord!!!'** She helps him sit up, careful not to hurt him any further. She's unable to withhold her grin at finally putting the fear which had harrowed her all these months to rest. Rey prepares to hold him up, knowing it's impossible for Luke to able to stand upon seeing the hint of a bone-deep needle trace through the slashed part of his uniform on the back. Or at least she thinks so until her husband balances his feet and starts wobbly walking up to her. She sets it aside as a miracle. 'Come on, let's go.'

"I thought you were dead."

Luke takes in her appearance, his eyes growing less blood shot, healing at a pace which is far too fast for the average human being. "I thought you were smaller."

"Come on Luke. Let's go before the Skywalker and Kenobi luck catches up to us."

"Rey: what happened to you?"

"Don't you remember? You let me join the army."

"Did it hurt?" _'My husband, just undergone torture and his first response is to make sure I'm not hurt. Oh, how i love you.'_

"It hurt a little."

"Is it permanent?"

"So far. Do you like it?"

"I'll like it so long as it doesn't hurt you."

 

She's pretty sure in a western movie they'd be kissing right about now, but truthfully Rey prefers this scenario. It shows how much they care about one another without a sweeping romantic score or over-the-top necking. Granted, things are exploding around them but that's irrelevant to her now. She's back in Luke's arms, and God be willing she'll never stray too far from them again.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hands out tin cup: comments please????


	13. Chapter 13

Hydra Factory compound, same time as the events transpired in the last chapter (Leia's POV)

Maybe the war's made her memory spotted, but Leia recalls Hydra bases used to be harder to escape from. She had to spend three days just to get this distance when rescuing Doctor San Tekka on Berlin but then she'd acted by weighing every option, put her brain into spy mode. This time Rey's behavior didn't allow her to devise a strategy, all her friend had permitted was to let her come along for the ride. Either way it brings one of Nurse or is it Captain now? Kenobi's worst attributes into light. Leia adores Rey, she'll punch a teeth out of anyone who looks at her wrong but only a deaf-blind mute would fail to visualize how she leaps to action and says 'damn the consequences'. Rey throws her soul to the wind and hasn't expect anyone but her Luke to provide comfort from the fall until recently, when she and Biggs snuck their way into the once stick-thin girl's trust.

Agent Organa chalks down the easiness of overpowering the flabbergasted guards to three unique conditions: Rey's crazy plan which got Leia here in the first place, the skeleton guard routine which has left so many Hydra soldiers tired to the bone, and last but certainly not least, the formerly imprisoned Allied troops which show Leia just why good men's wrath is more dangerous than bad ones.

She hears the alarms blare, watches as blinking red lights fuse with the scarlet flames being set by some crazy brown-haired man picking up grenades from the dead Hydra soldiers's corpses. The soldier? prisoner? setting charges to destroy this pillar to inhumanity has no official uniform but stands calm and controlled under fire, a true soldier's determination merged with a fury which started long before his captivity, perhaps before Pearl Harbor. As she keeps firing at heavens-knows how many squid-heads, Leia listens to him say 'Vive la Liberte' (that explains so much) with a grim light which also hints to a person happiest when he's under a fighter plane or a rifle. The fellow whom Leia thinks might be Arabic stares at his french compatriot as he upgrades from grenades to the actual crazy blue guns.

"You know how to use that thing Janson?

It seems as if Wes took those words as a dare because he proceeded to blow up a wall on the first time, the second time he disintegrates a group of Hydra reinforcement soldiers. Bodhi stares at him, not sure what to express.

"Okay."

Brief, yet completely comprehensible in light of the circumstances, Leia makes a note to recruit the man. Anybody capable of not panicking despite the fact your own side wanted to leave you behind is definitely a prized asset. One of the escaped Nazi prisoners tries to follow suit and shoot with the 'magic' blue ray Hydra gun, the poor teenage boy gets pushed by the blast and Leia sees the American fellow with the bowler hat pick up him up from the ground and give a quick inspection. Will wonders never cease?

"Hey Wedge. You and Agent Carter want a ride?"

Said question comes from two feet away, by way of Lando Calrissian waving from a tank with Bodhi Rook. The American with the bowler hat who had stolen her attention turns his head signalling 'Wedge' is his name. What a queer choice for sobriquet, or at least I think it's one. No mother is cruel enough to name their baby after a toolbox.

Calrissian throws out the dead Hydra corpse to make room for her. Leia's mind pictures her aristocrat born and bred aunts shrieking in horror and trying not to ruin their clothes as they jump out of the tank, this forces her to stifle a laugh. Just as Lando's about to throw off another corpse, the body turns out to be faking it and tries to stabs him. Leia and Bodhi shoot him but not before the squid-loving bastard leaves her with a serious hit on the head. She's still a bit drowsy when hearing Wedge softly exclaim the tank isn't exactly a Buick. 'I need to translate-' she thinks in her dazed state.

Lando adds yet another surprise to this completely illogical day by saying he's got this after he and Bodhi throw the body out.

'It doesn't change the fact that if he or any of them try kissing me 'for luck' I’ll kick them in the shin.'

He points at the controls. "Wedge: That one. Zündung." The tank ignites, she's never been so grateful to hear the sound in her life.

Wedge gives him a curious look. "Zündung?"

Isolder jumps into the tank. His mother would probably be as mortified as Leia's aunts at the state of him covered in blood and sweat and dirt.

"Get this thing going, Antilles!"

Wedge starts moving the tank, already doing better with it than most tanker recruits do on their first weeks of training. She finds it a much more attractive trait than Lando's asking if she needs a little tender, loving, care now they're safe. Antilles grins when Calrissian's face bleaches after Leia declares any non-medical male personnel who touched her below the waist this month would be effectively castrated. Lando goes over to Wedge who tries to distract him from the current threat.

"I didn't know you spoke German, Lando."

Lando smirks, "Three semesters at Howard, switched to French, girls much cuter."

Wedge frowns, "Didn't ask for the resume."

_These gentlemen are the most suicidal, tradition-breaking, unprofessional warriors that I have ever laid eyes upon: I absolutely **must** keep them. _

 

Back to Rey and Luke inside the burning Hydra facility (Luke's POV)

 

He's learned enough about medicine in the five years he's watched over Rey's bedside to know he shouldn't be able to walk. Luke remembers how she'd been when he came back on leave (or more specifically after Rex blackmailed his CO into granting him leave so he could heal Rey if the Force-healing spell he'd woven in her doll's fabric didn't work, not that Rex believed him on that part). To his eternal gratitude, Luke arrived to the sight of a lovable twelve-year old on the mend who smiled like sunlight upon seeing him back so soon. His then-future-wife had been so overjoyed to see him she'd yanked the covers off her hospital bed fully intent on running over and hugging him as tightly as possible. Instead she'd fallen flat on the floor, legs not remembering how to move correctly and trying so hard to prove she was getting better.

Luke had still spent the first two days after she left the hospital pulling her around in an improvised go-cart, Rey saying all the while her cart was the swan princes carrying her away from the evil witch-queen. And that was with a week of bed rest and medicine and Obi-Wan Kenobi's homemade pigeon soup. What he's doing is impossible, though in hindsight **nothing** about this situation fits the realms of conventional possibility.

Truth be told, Rey coming to rescue him is the most normal (or normal from his point of view anyway) part of this whole vibrant nightmare carved straight from Lucifer's pleasures. Despite her supposed 'weakness', Rey always possessed an indomitable willpower, a strength which went beyond the petite frame he summoned in his mind to keep sane as Luke heard the screams of fellow soldiers writhing in agony till they died, their now blank eyes still questioning what they ever did to deserve this gruesome fate. Rey, he knows, would have scoured the continent until she found him dead or alive as soon as her hazel orbs read 'Missing in Action'.

He pushes down whatever that sadist doctor did to him and tries to direct his whole focus on catching up so he doesn't cause the death of the woman who loved him deeply enough to infiltrate a Death Camp. Lieutenant-Colonel Skywalker refrains from adding 'Nazi' to that mental sentence because he saw the defiled mythical power beams turn traitor and kill both Nazi and Allied troops indiscriminately. Whoever these creeps are, they share no true political affiliation. That fact filled him with dread, long before he saw and lived through what happens to those taken to the isolation ward.

Flames erupt near them, highlighting the tri-color pattern of Rey's spandex blouse. If that has anything to do with her suddenly being the same height as him then Rey's going to need at least two hours for explaining what's happened because 'you let me join the army' is **NOT** sufficient information to stop him from worrying that this new form isn't fatal, or damages her already delicate health even further.

Two hours which hopefully include a hot chocolate for the nerves? Rey's with her favorite coconut shavings if they have any in a war-torn Europe which looks nothing like all those tourist company ads or Ben Kenobi's stories. France looked nowhere as beautiful as promised to him at 15, it shouldn't have surprised him that Italy followed suit over twenty years later. 'I want us to go home Rey.'

The doctor stares at him in glee, like a young kid who's just won a teddy bear in the fair, but the zealot he notices has eyes only for Rey. The unnatural cold creeping forth from the man causes him to try and shield Rey with his body, she shields his other side as a response and so they both end up trying to protect each other as Doctor Psycho's buddy walks closer to his wife.

"Captain America! How exciting! I'm a great fan of your film." then finally, his eyes turn to Luke. "So Dr. San Tekka managed it after all. Not exactly an improvement, but still impressive."

He watches her eyes fill with a rage he didn't know her capable of. Rey is gentle and nurturing and good though not unafraid to express tough love when the situation calls for it. Seeing that blood lust, that desire to make this unknown figure for whoever was hurt ( Rey's selfless like that, she can forgive what's done to her much easier than what's done to her loved ones) feels like she's changed in more ways than just her height or limb size. 'Please, don't let it be so much change that we've become strangers. Damn it, Rey. I go away from home a few months and you rattle the worst cage, which is actually pretty swell, but the problem is you don't safeguard yourself once the bars are shaking. So help me God, I am **never** leaving to stir up your lion's den alone again.'

She mutters under her breath 'You've got no idea' and he feels her signature grow slightly clouded as Rey who cried so badly at the thought of her grandfather killing a mouse the old priest was forced to keep R4 as a pet until it died three years later, pulls her gun's trigger and shoots the man.

He expects the opposite to happen with this fellow, expects the gaping pit of oblivion to drag every morsel of his being straight to hell, and the same goes for the doctor. None of which happens. Instead Mister Comic Strip Villain moans and Rey shoots him again. This time the bullet halts mid-air as the intended target takes her gun with the Force. His promise to Father Kenobi to never show Rey his abilities, and his vow of secrecy sworn under the monastery in China goes out the window as Luke pulls Rey back to the other side before any bullet can hit her and establishes a slight protection field around them. Rey looks at him, confused at how he could have moved them so fast and Plagueis sneers, utterly unimpressed. Behind him, realization downs on the face of Sheev Palpatine. Realization that he's just let a powerful being slip through his fingers. It doesn't last, and he soon looks like he's plotting just how he's going to get Luke back.

After the brief fight, one of the two figures at the opposing side pulls a lever and as result the catwalk retracts, effectively separating them from each other. The villainous-looking fellow stands proud, though not nobly, as the catwalk finishes its trek.

"No matter what lies San Tekka told you, you see I was his greatest success!"

The man begins to peel?!? the skin off his face, revealing an unnatural grey skull where a conventional face should be. 'Holy Cow, what the hell is wrong with all these looney Europeans? Can't anyone just fight normally these days.' Rey suddenly seems to forget about his 'party trick' and stares in stunned horror until she turns to face her husband.

"Luke: I want you to know: I don't have one of those."

"You are deluded, Captain. And you as well, Lieutenant Colonel. You both pretend to be simple soldiers, but in reality you are just afraid to admit we have left humanity behind. Unlike you, I embrace it proudly. Without fear!"

Some of the color returns to Rey's face, the unbridled fury is still there but more rational now. More like the Rey he prayed God and the Virgin Mary, Queen of Angels permitted that he come to. "Then how come you're running?" Yep, that's Rey all right.

The doctor and wannabe dictator continue their escape as do Rey and Luke. Luke's slightly dazed from making a force field under a state of dehydration, undernourishment and a bunch of other stuff whose names'll come back to him later, hopefully.

He knows the usual consequences of such an act tend to leave the caster unconscious or worse.

Orange, scarlet and flashes erupt in near proximity as the bad guys (Lord he feels so childish to think of them like that, but honest injun, there's no better way to describe them ) fade from sight. Rey signals they have to keep moving so he lets down the force field, once it's gone the cooling air which had provided some relief in this inferno worthy of Dante Alighieri fades with it. Rey's eyes brim with questions he doesn't have the time to answer. Thankfully she restrains herself from launching the hour-long inquiry which racks at her brain as evidenced by the way she's biting her lip. Her tells haven't changed, maybe that's a sign they're not so far apart. 'I still love you so much Rey, even a goldfish could tell me you still love me. Please let that be enough for us to get through this.' They finally reach an upper lever where the structure's less damaged, which means it's less likely to fall over when they walk. Rey starts leaning to the thin gantry connecting both sides of the room. He's not some NFG who's come over to kill Nazis, he's built barricades with mud and branches in China, before that he timed the tanks to know when they fired and what fell first in the Great War. Conclusion based on this experience: this flimsy metal rod is not going to hold them both. Without sparing a thought he tells Rey to go first.

Rey turns on him with a frown, "Did you lose your mind before or after the hocus pocus?!? I didn't come here so you could play the martyr."

"Rey please. Don't make me live in a world without you."

"Stop being so dramatic. It'll hold if we go one by one."

"And if it doesn't? If I'm right?"

"Then you get out of here."

Luke looked as though she'd struck physically struck him, _**"No! Not without you!"**_

Pale desert blue locks with hazel. Each trying to convince the other to save themselves. Neither is shocked or disappointed when both parties refuse to yield, preferring to steel their hearts for what they believe will be tragedy. If there was ever a trait they shared, it was the undeniable fact Mr and Mrs Skywalker were equally too noble for their own good.

Suddenly Rey's brow heightens in realization, though what she realized is a complete mystery to him. "Luke, climb on my back."

Now he just looked dumbstruck, "What?"

"Climb on my back.  Try not to put any pressure on your left arm." 'Darn it, I tried so hard for her not to notice that.'

He's reminded of the siege in Sister Beru's European History tome, where the invaders told the women they were free to take whatever they could carry and as a result the menfolk were saved by their faithful wives taking their husbands piggy-back style.

As a boy he'd laughed at the silly foreigners who underestimated the womenfolk. As a soldier he'd born Tarkin's silent rage after their side got beat by the Red Front's female generals.

Either way, he knows better than to doubt a woman's conviction.

At first, he's hesitant not because he doubts the rightness of her future actions, but because he's still calculating his weight on her as if she still weighed 80 pounds and winced in actual pain if one of his men gave too strong a bear hug. It'll be all right, she's as strong on the physical side as she always was on the spiritual. She holds onto his legs tight, which is probably a good thing cause he's not sure if he could press them firmly enough on his own.

She begins walking back, he realizes what she's about to do and sends her just a little 'boost' with his signature or as Rey in her wonderfully creative imagination called it when he healed her after the loss of their baby (Funny how events from one hell now merge with another) 'emerald musical strings decorated with sapphires' so her idea works a tad more efficiently. His faith is rewarded upon sensing Rey channeling the only part of her powers safe enough for him to teach her before as she subconsciously repeats the lesson instructed ten years past.

‘There is no chaos, there is harmony. There is no death, there is only the Force'. She jumps.

When the woman Rey calls Agent Organa sees them at the clearing, they're both covered in smoke. Luke sighs in relief upon seeing that Lando's among the survivors. What's left of his squadron salutes him, not caring he's one ill step away from falling flat on the dirt. Too exhausted for pleasantries after assessing who survived and who didn't, he does what he's wanted to do ever since he stepped onto that godforsaken boat to Africa which led to Italy and then to hell: once the crowd is kind enough to grant the married couple some time alone he leans into Rey's hug, she's still kind enough to sing Vera Lynn when he cries badly enough to ruin her blouse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hands out tin cup: comments please???


	14. Chapter 14

January 7, 1943, Allied Camp on the Italian Front (Biggs's POV)

 

Colonel Madine doesn't usher him away once the official file-redacting corporal arrives. Such a course of action is either a way to guilt-trip Biggs Darklighter or a sign the military officer is too tired at the moment to obey protocol. Probably the first option, Madine was pissed beyond measure at him already for pointing a gun to his head and getting away with it scot-free. The recent turn of events will no doubt increase his grudge against the young millionaire/mechanic/secret daredevil.

Bigg's suspicions are confirmed by the 'this-is-all-your-fault-glare' the Colonel sends him, as the youth prepares the typing machine. He's convinced the only reason why Luke spoke well of the man back in 1936, when Luke paid for his little sister's medical bills without even thinking it is because Skywalker is incapable of hating anybody except the irredeemable scum of humanity. (And even then he'll pity them somewhat).

"Senator Holdo, I regret to report Rey J. Skywalker nee Kenobi went missing behind enemy lines on the third. Aerial reconnaissance has proven unfruitful. As a result, I must declare Mrs. Skywalker killed in action. Period." _I **hate** the damn agents that barged into Rey’s room and told Madine the truth. Is privacy dead in the 20 th century?!?_

That fateful day when his hell-burning eyes glimpsed upon Luke Skywalker, two sensations irreversibly flooded his spirit from head to toe. The first was the unholy yet so undeniably logical thrum of romantic love within his chest. He'd always been prone to 'unnatural' yearnings of the flesh. It'd started with a ring-bearing boy at his uncle's wedding who caught his eye as no boy should have. Afterwards, the long trek to hell was sealed. But unlike the lynched sailors eagerly waiting at the docks, unsure if the night would end in death or a dangerously passionate embrace, Biggs Darklighter understood the value of caution. He hadn't gone from the slums to fame and fortune just to throw it away for some back-alley kiss. His parents deserved better, his sister deserved better.

With most men, regardless of his god-forsaken attraction, it was easy to restrain himself. Unholy physical drive or not, most men were still uninspired drool monkeys. All one had to do was find the flaw, the hindrance of character which made said individual 'undesirable'. They hit women or didn't think they were capable of doing the same jobs as men, or they had horrible table manners. Back when he was still a starving kid fixing clocks or cars or building's electrical connections, Biggs had a way to ensure no man would ever attract him beyond the mind. He'd draw a sketch of the Spirit of Louis's engine, the plane which cleared up what he wanted to do for the rest of his life and show it to men who might possibly be interested in him or vice versa. Just as the pilot's elephant that’d just devoured a snake was thought to be a hat in the book he'd gotten the idea from, every man thought the Spirit of St. Louis's core piece to be a bus engine or a large battery.

Every man except Luke Skywalker, who took an accidental look at his 'working desk' after he came to check if his sister was doing better and asked what drew him to Lindberg's plane engines. All Biggs could that moment was stare at the uniformed man who had no idea he was helping out a lousy fruit's family. Blonde and beautiful and with a laugh like synthetized sunshine as he entertained Biggs's sister with funny stories, the little prince all grown up and revealing himself to someone who knows the pilot begging for news of his lost friend in the final chapter is long gone.

There, in that startling moment of impossible desire and veneration and worry, surged the second sensation which carved itself into the burrows of his heart: the solemn promise to prevail where the pilot had failed, this time the little prince would not suffer the twig-like snake's venom. This time the prince would live happily ever after.

He'd never quite known how to keep that promise. It seemed like a far-fetched thing to even think of subscribing your life for. But he'd felt that it was a necessary oath to take. His grandfather always used to say that the things which felt like your whole reason for existing lied within following these goals were in fact destiny’s call. When the time came, he'd fulfill his purpose and aid Luke to the best of his ability.

That unbidden feeling of purpose had also led him to protect Miss Kenobi. Sweet, thoughtful Rey who laughed as the world pitted itself against her. Earnest Rey who didn't care if he had a couple of million dollars stashed in Wall Street and Switzerland. Wise beyond her years, Rey who sent him a baked Apple Strudel using Doctor San Tekka's recipe because he complained the army rations tasted like overdue fish in a letter.

Brave, steadfast Rey who, in so many forms, had fulfilled the awful yet exhilarating fantasies in regards to the kind of wife Luke Skywalker deserved long before he taped the pieces together.

Biggs's brought back to Earth by the abrupt sound of Colonel Madine's slamming the table after the other corporal, the one drenched to the bone and bearing a gaze which says he'd rather be anywhere else, whispers something into the older man's ear. The Colonel's stare is tired now, depicting the weariness of true soldiers, it makes Darklighter regret pulling pranks on him back in Brooklyn as the military officer opens his mouth to speak.

"The last surveillance flight is back. No sign of activity. "

Biggs frowned, "They're not dead, Colonel. They just want to make the most dramatic entrance possible."

Madine looked at him in utter disbelief , "You think it's all right to feed people false hope, just cause I can't chain you up twice? Rest assured, God will deliver the justice Earth can't dole out."

"Hell bound or not, Sir, I don't regret my actions. And I don't think Agent Organa, or Captain Skywalker do either."

Madine throws a coffee mug which only misses him by a narrow margin. "What makes you think I give a damn about your opinions?!? I took a chance with you, flyboy. And now my best agent, the super soldier nurse and a lot of other good men are dead, all because you let your guard down over a pair of hazel eyes."

“It wasn't that Sir; I have faith in Skywalkers and Leia Organa."

“Well, I hope that’s a big comfort to you, when they shut this division down."

The impromptu running and accelerated talk of soldiers outside the tent force both men to divert attention, thus cutting their battle of wits short. Lack of yelling for guns tell they're not under attack, and the surveillance flight would have picked up any enemy lines so what in tarnation has everybody so riled up? As if waking in a daze, the Colonel and Army Engineer pass through the unthinkable scenario of soldiers cheering to the edge of camp where a sight which causes even sourpuss Madine to lighten up, greets them: Rey, treading the grounds with Leia Organa on one side and Luke Skywalker on the other. She reminds him of the Viking Queens  as the scattered French, English and American troops walk reverently behind her.

'Why did anyone ever doubt you Rey Kenobi?'

Rey's eyes assure themselves Luke won't fall if she lets go of him before carefully, and lovingly releasing her hold on his back. Luke's once golden mane is silver now. Rey had called the few gray streaks majestic. 'What would be the right term for them now? What would they feel like-' He stops that train of thought immediately, reminding himself **he** **has and never will have** any right over Luke. Especially not when the man has been joyously reunited with his rose, that's strong enough to forgo the glass protection now.

Luke and Rey both salute Colonel Madine, cerulean and hazel eyes humble yet certainly not downcast. There's only so much one can expect of a Skywalker, it seems. The Captain's hazel irises briefly glance at him, leaving Biggs to wonder just what she perceived before Lt. Colonel Skywalker and Colonel Madine step closer together. Half the tent holds back the urge to faint in shock when the Colonel hugs his subordinate. How does he do it?

"Never thought I'd see your ugly mug again, Skywalker."

“Likewise, Colonel. Some of these men require medical attention."

A medic rushes over to receive the wounded men. Some of the soldiers run towards the brothers-in-arms they had thought lost forever. It's a touching sight, one which will be immortalized in books and films, and the annual Azzano remembrance festival which will be celebrated every year after its founding in 1947.

Rey curtsies to the Colonel and addresses him. "I’d like to surrender myself for disciplinary action."

 

Luke Skywalker's hand roams to his gun, indicating wordlessly just how _welcome_ the idea is. Leia Organa does the same, though her gaze betrays nothing. 'I really need to start carrying a weapon everywhere.' Madine's response to the possibility of being shot by two of the Armed Forces' most distinguished assets is to be amused at the bizarre situation.

"That won't be necessary."

She smiles in relief. "Yes, sir."

The Colonel turns, walks away and notices Leia, calling her to work. Rey is brushing her hand against Luke's argent locks when Biggs is right next to her. The young man clears his throat, knowing otherwise he'll never draw their attention apart from each other.

"What happened to the transponder I gave you?"

Rey turns beet red. "It had a bad landing?"

She holds up the broken machinery, half embarrassed and half gleeful fate has allowed her the chance to show a technological piece as the worst of injuries. Biggs laughs until Luke kisses his wife's hand in amusement, after which he tries to hold back the urge to repeat Skywalker's actions replacing the hand for the mouth.

Luke locks eyes with him, which is fine really. He doesn't expect the man to remember somebody he met seven years ago and never saw again. Rey's husband, and really it's horrid how the only woman he's ever come close to loving as God bid proper, is so deeply in love with the man who visited his dreams for almost a decade, was kind but only in that uncommonly pure form which he was good to everyone.

He feels almost wistful as he moves to shake Luke's hand. "Hi, you probably don't remember me-"

"Good to see you again, Biggs. Thank you so much for watching over Rey in my absence. How's your sister?"

 _'He remembers me, Luke remembers me....'_ Somehow that only makes everything worse. Biggs is sure he doesn't deserve the platonic affection Skywalker gifts him by hugging him as he did Colonel Madine. He's not even sure if he deserves Leia's trust, let alone Rey and Luke's freely offered friendship.

Thankfully, God grants him a small respite by keeping Mr. and Mrs. Skywalker oblivious to the truth he'll carry to his grave. Luke and Rey look at him as a dear friend, a confidant. He can be that for them. Lord knows, they'll need it now that everyone will place Rey upon a pedestal. Let this be his penance, let their protection be the cross to atone for his wretched desires.

So he straightens his back, lifts his chin, puts on his million-buck smile, and yells, "Let's hear it for Captain America!!!"

In his mind, Biggs Darklighter declares his role in this story is the fox, and the cheering crowd of soldiers is his field of wheat as hundreds whoop at the sight of Luke Skywalker kissing his wife which becomes the traditional ending for the Azzano festival. He will treasure his allotted time with them while it lasts, but only so long as it comes by their leaving to start a new life. For just as the pilot refused to accept the little prince was swallowed whole by the serpent, Biggs Darklighter shall never accept the possibility either Luke or Rey won't outlive him. 'Only the good die young' be damned.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hands out tin cup: Comments please???


	15. Chapter 15

January 9, Allied Headquarters in London (Rey's POV)

Leia's handed her a Medal of Valour which Rey pondered going over to receive, due to the significance of a woman being granted the prestigious award for the first time, in her shared tent with Luke. The pondering had lasted exactly thirty-two minutes: the time it took for Luke to fail hiding the bruises and bone deep needle marks after taking off his shirt to bathe. Per custom, her husband tried to downplay his injuries and told her he felt perfectly fine with a charming smile that would fool anyone who's not a professionally medical expert. She pressed a hand on his back, Rey knew she'd won the argument once he tried (and failed) to suppress a pained wince.

After that, there was no question of what she should do. Luke had taken care of her during the sick days (far too many for their liking) almost all their married life. Now it was her turn to repay the favor. So Rey reset the bones in his left arm, cleaned his wounds and lay next to him to sleep as he instinctively hugged her. And, if she's a little sentimental over how happy it makes her to have his quiet embrace back, Rey thinks the occasion merits such a profound reaction so she's not embarrassed at all. How many wives can say they've rescued their love from a death camp?

When Rey wakes up the next morning, she feels the emerald pulsing again, much more relaxed in its flow. She kisses her husband's sleeping cheek and works to fasten the longline* bra she's not used to wearing and tries to fasten the metal hooks which prove yet again how she's yet to master the finer arts of this body. Suddenly, the small binding instruments are bound together. Fastening themselves by magic? No, not magic but it's a safe bet to say this is probably connected to Luke stirring in his sleep just now. The young woman's thoughts drift to the strange display of sorcerer-like skills which had emanated from Damask, and more importantly from Luke. At first she'd thought it was the result of Damask's experiments, but the more she reviews what happened, the more she's convinced Luke was aware of his telekinetic? abilities. If so, why didn't these gifts or powers or whatever they are show up sooner? Were they suppressed during his last war and resurfaced now as self-defense mechanism? Was he sworn to secrecy not to tell anyone? That's the only explanation Rey can suspect for why he didn't tell her anything.

No matter. Luke will tell her the truth when he's ready. _Besides, him showing a little magic turns the surprise at new developments while separated into an equal scale._

A private is waiting for her outside the tent. He's barely old enough to enlist, or mayhap he's lied about his age. Wouldn't be the first time or the last a teenage boy decided patriotic duty superseded waiting for the age limit. After Pearl Harbor Maz had to drag tall fourteen boys away from signing up, threatening them with her black frying pan if they ever showed their faces before turning eighteen. The boy extends a formal salute.

"Captain America."

She couldn't quite hide a wince. "You don't have to call me that, I'm Rey."

The boy continues to gaze at her as if she were Saint Joan of Arc, General MacArthur and Superman rolled into one. Rey doesn't know whether to be flattered or terrified she's being idolized by young people in a belligerent fashion when she hadn't wanted to actually fight. Her goals in the front were halting injustice and watching out for those she loves. Leia was the professionally trained lady fighter in the group. Azzano was a one-time thing, after this she'll become a combatant nurse, or go home with Luke. Surely they've earned the right to go home?

His gaze does not change. "Captain, Colonel Madine and Agent Organa have summoned you to the War room. Also they're saying Lt. Colonel Skywalker should prepare for de-briefing."

Rey crosses her arms, frowning deeply. "My husband is sleeping, and under medication. If you try to wake him before 7 am, then I'll tell on you to the soldiers who know that I'd be dead years ago, and thus incapable of saving them if not for Luke."

Mrs. Skywalker smirks as the boy-soldier gulps audibly and tells her such immediate actions will not be necessary for the moment. 'Good, he wiped that immature puppy eyed stare from his face.' When she arrives at the War Room Leia is waiting, as are Colonel Madine and a cartographer. While rescuing Luke, she'd briefly glimpsed a map of Europe containing pins with Hydra flags on them. Rey's new photographic memory had allowed her to store away the image until it was needed. The odd skill shows utility as the young woman is given a marker to pinpoint where each base was located.

She signals Northwestern Germany, the French-Spanish border and a couple more locations, finding it queer how those around her look upon her red dots as if they were a map to the Holy Grail.

Rey looks like 'the thinker' made real as she recalls what she glimpsed. "The fifth one was here in Poland, right near the Baltic. [She marks it on the map] And the sixth one was… about here, 30, 40 miles west of the Maginot Line. [A soldier takes the map away] I just got a quick look."

Leia is slightly impressed, but no adulation crosses her chocolate eyes. 'I can always count on her, at least. Her and Luke and Biggs.' "Nobody's perfect."

Two hours, three reports from separate divisions, and exactly four and 2/3 cups of tea later, Colonel Madine, SSR Agent Leia Organa and Nurse? Captain? Rey walk over to a larger map of Europe. Concentration etched on all their faces as they try to picture the enemy's route. A corporal adds flags to the sections revealed by the recent turn of events. The finished product is a gruesome yet well-organized thing to behold.

"If those are the weapons factories you know about then I must regretfully inform you there's another factory which isn't on the maps."

Simultaneously, three heads turn and see Luke Skywalker, uniformed and no longer faltering in his step.

Rey had given Luke a bit of morphine when he almost reopened his stitches on the right rib while thrashing in his sleep, not enough for hallucinations mind you, but sufficient that he shouldn't have woken up until much later. This time Rey doesn't set the event aside as a miracle. First chance she gets, Rey's going to press for answers, in the nicest way possible. Of course Madine is oblivious to her thoughts, and simply nods in approval he's been notified before any strategies had to be altered.

"Agent Organa, coordinate with MI6. I want every Allied eyeball looking for that main Hydra base.

 "Leia directs her gaze to the CO. "What about us Sir?"

 Madine looks nothing less than confident when he replies, "We are going to personally escort Damask to the gates of hell with an SSR flag so the devil knows who sent him. What do you say, Skywalker? You and the missus interested in wiping Hydra off the map?"

The young woman's sure she's misheard the Colonel somehow. 'Didn't he say she wasn't vital to Hydra's downfall? Why did one mission change his views so radically? Leia was the real genius in their two-woman improvised rescue party. Why isn't Madine asking Agent Organa to go off with Luke? Is it because of how indecent it would look to send a young unmarried woman to the front? Caeli Sancti, **they've asked Luke back into the front**. Isn't two Great Wars and a Chinese Civil War enough active combat for these people?'

As if Luke can sense all the thoughts and questions racing through her head, he responds with, "Colonel, I need some time alone with my wife to discuss your proposal. If you don't mind, that is."

"No, by all means talk. This is a decision which shouldn't be taken lightly."

She does her best to feel some sort of negative emotion when her husband takes her by the hand, directing them away from the war meeting. 'How are you healing so fast Luke? What are you keeping from me? What happened to you in that cold operating table to leave your hand trembling so badly, when you tried to shave I had to do it for you?' It'd seem stupid if Rey said it out loud but Luke's saddened gaze makes her wonder if he really can read her thoughts.

Luke plays with a stray hair of her considerably thicker brown locks. Rey can see the cogs in his head on how he can adapt hairstyles she'd been previously unable to pull off. 'Darn it my love, how am I supposed to stay angry at you when you're always so dedicated to me?’

"Rey, I think we both have a lot of questions to answer."

Rey crosses her arms, "Undoubtedly."

His expression is not unlike a little boy, who doesn't want to be where he is right now, and it’s adorable, but Rey wouldn't let it distract her. "So do you want to start or do I start?"

"Probably best if I start, knowing you the answer will be dramatic."

He raises an eyebrow. "We're both dramatic, let's leave it at that before getting sidetracked."

The words come out of her mouth easier than Rey expected. Everything flows out as if she were a broken dam finally letting the river take its natural course. True to character, Luke checks her scar over upon hearing she was shot, Rey knows if Biggs hadn't killed Pryce then Luke would be plotting her demise. He performs the signal of the cross when she tells him Dr. San Tekka is dead, another good man who perished deserving better. Like her, Luke doesn't understand why Mrs. Holdo wore an evening gown for a secret bunker, though he does say fox fur is good for winter and maybe he should get her a fox coat. Cerulean irises turn in shock after hearing she was 'Captain America' and Luke mutters he has to confiscate a few of her pictures from his soldiers. The rescue had already been clear to him so she doesn't need to explain that at least. He smiles fondly when Rey brings him the orange silk dolly she got the name from, sailing far away from war-time England as his hands stroke the well-loved gift of years past. Inevitably he returns to the present, knowing it's his turn.

Luke runs a hand through his silver locks, an argent crown bestowed as proof of his endurance.

"Rey: you know how you've always said people have their own colors?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Her expression projected her confusion.

Luke looked sheepish. "They're not colors, not in the traditional sense. What you've seen all along is their Force signatures."

"Force signatures?" Luke was being deliberately obtuse, she was sure.

"The traditional term is Chi-slash-extremely long Cantonese translation which could be shortened into 'Force'. It's an energy field which binds us to the mystical side of the galaxy, brings the galaxy together. Every living creature leaves an imprint on the Force, the colors you love so much."

Her first reaction is to assume he's gone crazy, then she looks at her once 80 pound frame and thinks about how her best friends are an SSR agent and a millionaire genius.

"Suppose I believe you: do you have any proof?"

She expects nothing, that way Rey figures the outcome will be less hard to bear. 'Please don't be crazy, I wouldn't blame you for having a mental breakdown but at the same time I don't have you anywhere near those horrible brain coots that perform lobotomies on poor people.'

Luke holds out his arms. "Rey, come closer. Don't be afraid."

On a leap of faith, she walks over to him. Deliberately throws her soul to the wind in the hopes he'll catch it in time. Luke takes her hands in his, cupping now equal sized palms.

Then suddenly, like a sign from God, Rey watches as a small sphere of emerald green light emanates from Luke's hands. She glimpses at her husband, trying to reconciliate this sight before her with reality as Luke expands the energy and changes it very briefly into a jade flower which he tucks behind her ear. It's beautiful and strange and quite frankly impossible, she wants to learn how to do it.

"Believe me now, darling?"

She's a sixteen year old nurse with a fluttering heart all over again as Luke shows up in the hospital cause the boat docked an hour early. Her cheeks feel hot as Luke's flower disintegrates in her hair, countless threads of light dispersing over the land.

"Where did you learn about this?"

"Your grandfather was my first mentor but he never finished his studies because he chose to save your grandmother instead of taking the Trials. A fact I will never complain of cause that led to you. I mastered my abilities in China, under the watchful eye of Brother Chirrut Imwe and GrandMaster Yoda."

Rey is aghast. "My grandfather had this power? Who else in my life have you met with this potential?"

"The force is strong in our families: my father had it, I have it and your grandfather had it...You have that power too."

She looks at herself, trying to reconcile the way she was born with the abilities wielded by both her husband, her sworn enemy and now her beloved Ben Kenobi. Luke doesn't say to Rey why he or Grandfather never bothered teaching her anything to do with the Force. Quite frankly, he doesn’t need to give her that explanation. It's painfully obvious why they kept her in the dark. Luke had been exhausted after that brief display of power and he was in perfect health, even if age was starting to catch up on him a bit. In Rey's previous condition, using the Force or whatever the Chinese monks call it would have definitely killed her. She decides this secret no longer has any importance, Rey knows the truth now, and Luke knows what actually transpired these months. There are no more secrets, and God be willing, no more shall need to be hidden.

Rey smiled gently, playing with his hands. "We'll certainly have a lot to teach one another when we get home next week."

Luke lets go of her hands. "Rey, you're smarter than this," he frowns. "You know they'll never let us go home until the war is over, perhaps not even then."

She wants to shove him away so much, bt her hands just end up resting on his chest, feeling his heartbeat and the rise and fall of his breathing. " **How can you say that!! This isn't the Third Reich or the Japanese Empire!! We're the good guys."**

He presses them to him.  "You know, both the Third Reich and The US draft their soldiers. When you think about it the enemy's sense of duty is no less than ours. Both regiments are set marching on somebody else’s lies."

"Damask is a monster. Hitler and Mussolini are monsters-"

"So is Tarkin. And whoever thought up the concentration camps for Japanese Americans.* **Don't** act as if we're all led by saints. Don't act as if you don't belong to them now."

"I belong to no one!!"

"Rey Kenobi didn't, _Captain America_ though? She belongs to the good old US government. They own you, and by doing so they seize control of me."

Her face becomes stoic. "So what do we do?"

He rubs her hands reassuringly. "They're going to use us. I think its best we use them too for a while, set our own terms before they force their rules upon us."

"What kind of rules?"

"Placing us in different regiments, using you for propaganda you don't agree with, trying to convince me to sign some document which leaves all your organs as state property if you die - that sort of thing."

"But you'll stay by my side, right?"  
  
He lifts her chin. "Always. "

A childish part of her wants to say these ideas won't be necessary, that they've paid their dues and it's only fair they're presented with the option to retire from active duty. But then she thinks about Dr. San Tekka who'd been trying to cure tuberculosis and was forced to participate in a super soldier program just so he wouldn't get deported back to the Nazis. Of her father who hid Italians under a hidden basement in the kitchen cause the government was accusing everyone with a drop of Mediterranean blood with anarchism and her own experiences from those who thought her health was a scarlet letter.

Rey holds her husband close and tells him they're due a dance, wanting to show off that green dress she bought in Italy. Luke jokingly asks her if that dress could help recruit people at the dance hall, already planning a strategy in his mind.  Good, if he's thinking of recruiting the same people she wants as a unit then its instrumental to recruit them now before being assigned the 'best' men. Grandfather always said a person should only place faith in three things: God, your family (adopted or biological) and the rare steadfast friend. She runs the mantra through her head as Luke fixes her hair for the night and hopes when this war is over they can go home.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Longline bras are a traditional bra top with extra band length that extends to the belly button. The long panel is usually boned to help with posture and bust uplift. The purpose is to smooth out under bust flesh, much like a girdle smoothens out tummy flesh. They were popular in WWII because they could hold up and support a chest from the back.(Back then shorter bras opened at the front, making them less suitable for factory work).  
> * On February 19, 1942, shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 with the intention of preventing espionage on American shores, this empowered the military to round up anyone of Japanese ancestry and place them in internment camps. . Executive Order 9066 affected the lives about 117,000 people—the majority of whom were American citizens. Army-directed evacuations began on March 24. People had six days notice to dispose of their belongings other than what they could carry.  
> Anyone who was at least 1/16th Japanese was evacuated, including 17,000 children under 10, as well as several thousand elderly and handicapped.
> 
> Hands out tin cup: comments please????


	16. Chapter 16

8pm, January 9 at The Dancing Sailor Bar, London (Luke's POV)

 

He doesn't know why Rey's taking so long. Well he does, but truthfully after all these trials he's willing to forgo surprises for now and just spend every waking moment with the wife he thought he'd never see again. Some of the soldiers there keep offering him free drinks but he doesn't accept them, wanting to see whatever Rey wants him to see in complete sobriety. Luke figures if he's going to know Rey in and out the way he used to, then its a task that requires maximum time and effort devoted. While not a unwelcome task, it's far more difficult than the aged soldier likes to admit.

Sometimes he has to remind himself not to wait for Rey standing on her toes cause she can reach him now, this afternoon at lunch he almost had a heart attack at the sight of her eating peanut butter toast which Rey gleefully informed him she wasn't allergic to anymore. He feels like he's failing her in those moments. Rey knows his every breath to perfection, and he's not even sure what his wife can or can't sink her teeth into anymore.

In an attempt to lessen his tension, Lt. Colonel Skywalker starts to observe the people around and try to guess their stories. A young man is fidgeting with his pocket, if the cologne Luke can smell three tables away is his then it's a safe bet the kid's going steady with his girl tonight. Best of luck to the lad, Lord knows he was plenty nervous when he proposed to Rey. Lando Calrissian is trying to pretend he's not pleasantly surprised when the English bartender invites him to sit at the large table where everyone can see him. His native land of New Orleans isn't the best at equality. Wedge starts saying one might learn a thing or two from these Brits. Young Leia Organa sits down next to Wedge. Luke will never be able to convey how grateful he is to the SSR agent for seeing Rey's worth before all this super-soldier whatchamacallit. The only thing he well and truly hates about his wife's physical change is how people seem to think she's become admirable when in truth she was never anything short of magnificent.

Luke sees Isolder, Bodhi and Wes all arrive together. The middle aged man stands to join their 'I'm so happy to be alive' meeting, and goes on the may or not be hard self-anointed task of recruiting men who can actually go home to the front with him and Rey.

Wedge and Lando are understanding as only people who have shared the same cell, commiserating over the life each left behind can be. The Texan instantly says before he hears any military propositions drinks are in order and please no wine cause all the good stuff got confiscated in the French occupation, leaving them with English drinks which taste like sweat. Leia stares at the bowler-hat wearing soldier and Luke holds back a laugh.

Bodhi, Lando and Wes lose interest in the non-verbal dispute, eyes transfixed in whatever sight has just entered the bar. Since only one of those is quick to focus on the nearest skirt, Lt. Colonel Skywalker turns his gaze to the bar's entry. And there is Rey, confidently walking in a four-tiered emerald gown that puts the 'lady in red' to shame.  Luke can't help staring at her bare shoulders, wanting to run his fingers over the clear path of her idyllic skin. By the mischievous smile his wife sends Luke knows that was her intention all along.

She's got the look of the cat that got the cream. "Hello boys. Like my dress?"

Lando seems to forget how to breathe, Wes gets slapped by Wedge for trying to send a wolf-whistle and poor Bodhi's cheeks turn redder than ketchup. Luke thinks Leia's gaze hints of an unspoken (forbidden) attraction neither he nor the SSR agent will speak out loud for both of their sakes. 'I don't think it's unnatural for her to be in love with Rey. The real question is how is the entire world not in love with my wife?'

He reaches out for her with a smile, and places a kiss on her cheek. There's so much more flesh beneath his lips then he's used to. "Any chance they let you wear that dress into battle? The Krauts would run just because they'd think you a Valkyrie."

For all her changes physical and mental, Rey blushes exactly the same as she has since 1927, an effervescent shade of rose that no other woman quite masters.

"Did you ask them yet?"

"No, I had till they were all here. You wanna do the honors?"

Rey takes the lead. "Gentlemen, we're assembling a team of the best soldiers in order to carry out every pulp fiction novel fan's daydreams and save the world. Are you interested?"

Bodhi raises his hand, more bold since his near death encounter in Azzano. "They're letting you place us all in the same unit?"

Lando looks down at the question, as if suddenly remembering all the heavy baggage which comes with the color of his skin. His previous joy is gone, replaced with bitterness decades old. 'If there's a hell, whoever first thought up segregation is definitely deep in it,' Luke thinks cynically.

Luke smiles easily. "You'd be operating under SSR, not your respective Armed Forces. Now, while they tend to follow military rules, there's no article in their books against a hetero-racial unit. It's a loophole but it checks out. Plus, it has the added benefit of driving our superiors mad."

Wedge puts down his glass and sits up taller. "So, let’s get this straight."

Lando does the same. "We barely got out of there alive, and you're asking us to go back? Would we be under her division? I wouldn't mind taking orders from the angel of vengeance."

Calrissian winks as he says this. But he can't make her blush like Luke does. "My husband is the Senior Officer. I and everyone else who decides to join will be under his command."

Wes slouches back. The French resistance legionnaire speaks to Luke's direction, believing he won't understand. {What kind of a man doesn't stand up to punch the fellow impertinent enough to flirt with his wife?}

Luke smirks. {The kind who like to wave pitifully at the poor wretches before they get pummeled by her.}

Janson smiles, as if Luke's declaration is the best thing he's ever heard in his life. Wes tells Lt. Colonel Skywalker he'll follow 'the angels of mercy and vengeance' to the gates of hell.

Lando claps his hands before he relaxes into his seat again. "If Janson's in so am I."

Isolder plays thoughtful fingers over the rim of his glass. "If I do go with you fellows, my mother will call me a degenerate communist. Which sounds rather fun. Where do I sign?"

Bodhi shrugs nonchalantly, "If you don't mind having a carpet-kisser*, I'm in."

Wedge throws back the last mouthful of his drink, before he wiped his mouth on his sleeve and replies, "Hell, I'll always fight, but you lovebirds got to do one thing for me."

Both Rey and Luke gaze at him in confusion before she takes the lead. "What do we have to do?"

Antilles grins. "Open a tab."

Luke moves and goes over to the bar. The barkeeper is relieved he finally gets to hand him the previous free drinks. Rey follows him, tentatively moving to place her head on his back until she stops herself, remembering she'd reach thin air cause they're the same height now. 'If this whole thing is difficult for me I can't imagine how hard it has to be for Rey.'

For all his so called mind powers, he's never actually read what goes through Rey's vibrant head. They communicated as any other man and wife. Their relationship growing had nothing to do with the Force, barring the fact he found her that day in 1927 by following her blue imprint on the galaxy, but he hadn't felt anything romantic towards Rey back then. Rey had though, to think he thought the sweet little girl would look back and refer to him as a first love. Maybe it's foppish of him, but Luke liked the fact they understood each other so seamlessly without any unfair advantage regular couples wouldn't have.

He wants to read it right now, if only to comprehend what his wife's going through.

As Rey moves to the bar counter, the roles switch. Now Luke is the one trailing after her. He's struck with an idea of how to make her happy upon seeing the piano dame playing "There's a Tavern In Town". Without further ado the Lt. Colonel slips her a Silver Dollar and requests a song. The musician grins and starts playing, clearing her throat to sing.

*'Roses in December, for you. Shall I take the stars from the blue? Or would you like the moon upon a platter?It doesn't matter. What can I do, for you?'.

The music fades from the background, falling second to Rey's genuine smile. "You always did know how to brighten up the mood."

He moves closer to Rey, pressing a feather light touch to her brown locks. "Easy to brighten a night in the presence of its finest star."

She shifts awkwardly under his touch. "Luke: do you like me this way? Or do you look at me and picture the way I was before?"

Luke is aghast. "Rey, why would you ask something like that?"

He brushes the stray tear off her face. How he wishes she never had a reason to cry. "I was so afraid you wouldn't recognize me. I never pondered over and over what would transpire when you did. That little detail just highlighted how things can't be the same as much as we want it to be. I have trouble remembering I'm too tall for smaller doors, my balance is all off, I had to re-sew all my wardrobe and buy new shoes because nothing fits anymore!! My old body wasn't pretty, but at least we knew how it worked and how to react. Now, I'm clueless. And if that's my reaction, then you're probably horrified. I don't blame you: when I first saw myself like this, I didn't exactly hop with joy."

"Rey Kenobi, I married you for lots of reasons: because you're sweet and smart and funny. Because you're the only girl who can turn a nightmare into a daydream. Because when I'm with you, all the pain in this world goes away. Things like that aren't going to change just because of how tall you are, or what you can now lift."

She kisses his cheek, now within such easy reach. "I'll never doubt you again, promise."

He returns the gesture. "We'll take it in stride. Just talk to me, please. I worry."

"Any man leading a band of misfits with Captain America into the jaws of death should be worried."

"Hell, no! The little girl from Brooklyn, who knows what she wants, and bewilders the grownups with how well she picks right from wrong? I'm following her, but you're keeping the outfit right?"

"You know what? It's kinda grown on me."

Rey is still laughing as he invites his wife to their long overdue dance. They spend hours embracing as they sway to and fro with music barely audible to the other's ears. Leia and the Howling Commandos find them, and decide to let them have this one night. Except for Janson who snaps a photo with a camera Biggs has developed to work without the usual noise. The Frenchman pretends he's keeping it to sell, but in the end, he'll donate the photo to the Louvre for free in the 1970s once the more cynical psychologists do their best to tarnish the purest love Wes ever had the privilege of seeing.

They don't notice how Rey's dress kept attracting the attention of every man who walked into that bar, much less how some young ladies stared at the married couple with adoring eyes.

In the future, English little girls shall go to where the bar once stood in January 9th, wear a green dress and wish for their true love to come and dance with them as Luke Skywalker did with his wife.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *carpet-kisser: most popular slur against muslims of the time.  
> *https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf9au6_Xl5g  
> Hands out tin cup: comments please??


	17. Chapter 17

January 10, England base (Rey's POV)

She didn't make love to her husband last night, not in the traditional sense. There's no physical transaction of bodily fluids or hurried panting followed by both of them taking their clothes off. But Rey did feel as if she and Luke weaved a tapestry depicting their love whilst they danced.

Rey presses a loving touch to her husband's blonde and grey curls, struck by how he young he looks asleep, how the grievous toll of Doctor Palpatine's vile concoctions has dissipated in this peaceful and happy slumber. 'I hope someday our efforts construct a world where there's no need for torture victims to be rescued because torture itself will be a mere fact of the past like the Roman Empire or the Hundred Year's War, where men like Plagueis receive straight jackets instead of troops to lead'. 

"You always were amazingly idealistic. It humbles me how much you believe things can be changed."

Rey doesn't expect Luke's verbal response to her thoughts. "Since when can you read my mind? Have you been doing it all these years?"

Luke answers sincerely. "I could if I wanted to, but that would be a violation of your trust. So I've never even tried with you or anyone outside of times wherein necessity obligated. It's your emotions I see. And this only because you have given me your heart so openly that we bonded long before either of us was aware of it."

  
She takes hold of his hand, committing the new way in which it fits with her own to memory. Half curious and half entranced yet clear of mind with him as she has been ever since 1927. "What sort of sort of situations render you obligated?"

His eyes grow distant, Rey feels Luke's thumb caressing her hand. "Men in cataphora* who hold answers which may save lives. Guards at concentration camps who refuse to tell where the cells are, and in one particular case which shames the American militia, a soldier who refused to tell the truth on whether he had defiled a local girl."

Rey's nose scrunches at that last occasion, her brow frowning in anger. "I sincerely hope you castrated that man, good husband of mine."

"I had him dishonorably discharged. That was all the law permitted. I also told the rest under my command what he did but since I gave no order for it. The thrashing they gave him was not my fault."

Rey had to wonder, 'Would my word be kept if I gave a similar order on my own as Luke did or is my new rank simply decoration once separated from my husband. No woman has ever held this rank before and usually when minorities are assigned new positions those in power have given them as tokens to wash off segregation with their mouths'. The mental image of heading to battle with a cameraman only for her to be photographed in uniform whilst others bleed and suffer the war convinces her no. She will throttle anybody who tries to relegate her so, even FDR himself will be better off discharging her than using her for a pin up. They've got Marlene Dietrich for that, even with mystery super serum in her veins Rey's legs are nowhere as good.

Her thoughts are interrupted by Leia asking if it's safe for her eyes to enter their tent, or if she'll have to help search for clothes. Honestly, do all English ladies have such little regard for modesty. 'Probably not, Leia lives for making even the semblance of a rule jump distraught. I pity whoever served as her governess'.

Rey swears she can hear a smirk. "Biggs has some equipment for you both to try out. Think you can be ready in 0800?"

The young woman's about to give her affirmation when on spur of moment Luke begins kissing her neck, roguish twinkle in his eye as she tries her best not to moan in ecstasy.

Rey wiggles to get a little closer to him without thinking. "We'll be ready in time, don't you fret."

Somehow the smirk sounds even more present. "I'll leave you to it."

Once Miss Organa's footsteps are no longer audible, she stares at her husband in exasperation. Like all men, he stays completely oblivious to what it means and just cheekily kisses her on the lips. Honey sweet and causing her to tremble as Luke deepens his hold on her lips and draws her closer, sliding his hand into her nightgown. 'Jesus H Roosevelt, nobody kisses like you-Stop it you ninny, we'll be late by a century if this goes where I want it to go.'

Rey makes what she knows to be a pitiful attempt to dissuade him. "Darling, we need to get ready for Biggs's weapon test."

Luke lets go, just a little. "Oh come on, Doll. Just a few more pecks. I haven't seen you in months."

She can't help but grin. "No, then we'll go beyond, and all the soldiers will be jealous of me."

Luke's nose wrinkles. "Yes, because the army base with a 99% male population will envy the woman holding yet another masculine homo sapiens."

Rey starts putting on her stockings despite his efforts, stopping for a brief kiss she cuts short before it deepens too much. She puts on the faux pearl earrings borrowed from one of the chorus girls, wondering what will happen to them now that the show's been delayed until further notice. 'Will there be another dame they pick to dress up as me? Or will they try filming the war? Did I put those young women out of a job the way all those big shots did after the crash of 29? If so, I must make amends.' Deciding to ask Colonel Madine about their futures, she turns to her husband so Luke can braid her hair. "I'd say declaring you a mere human is an insult. To me you've always been extraordinary."

Luke smiles. "Well, you know what they say: behind every extraordinary man there's an even greater woman."

The old adage of 'absence makes the heart grow fonder' is neither right nor wrong in this case. His hands slowly arranging her thick chocolate ringlets into a French braid don't feel any different from before but still retains that wondrous sensation of gentle love. Task done, she waits till he's in uniform (hers won't come till next week so for now Rey is dressed in civilian garbs cause there's no female version of the Captain outfit) and stands to help him put on his tie, lessening the usual knot's final pressure when he represses a slight wince so soft Rey barely took notice of it.

Rey gives Luke a twirl. "How do I look, darling?"

He gazes upon her appreciatively. "Beautiful as always. Though perhaps you should ask Biggs. I'm obviously bias"

'I love you Luke Skywalker, with every fiber of my being I love you.' For someone who chooses not to read her thoughts, Luke does turn quite a distinguished shade of pink.  
They manage to surprise Leia by coming less than ten minutes after her announcement. Rey thinks the past days must be getting to her because Leia's ivory glow is somewhat remorseful when she arrives holding hands with her husband, (not very professional she knows, but as Luke said they haven't seen each other in months so it's only natural there be a desire for physical contact.) Her friend's smile is a tad too practiced as she shakes with Luke. Perhaps it's due to Leia wondering if it's a good idea to have a married couple in active combat together due to how one might react if the other is shot? Leia is a strategist at heart, so it's not illogical Agent Organa analyze every angle.

Luke seems genuinely pleased to formally meet her. "Pleased to make your acquaintance, Agent Organa. Rey's full of praises for you, no easy task to accomplish that."

Leia appears to respond in kind. "Oh trust me Sir, I'm well aware just how little praise your wife doles out. You'll find Biggs in the armory. He just finished examining the Hydra cartridge recovered from the base."

"Thank you for your assistance, Agent."

"My pleasure."

  
Biggs is wiping off some kind of black coal from his suit when they find him. His usually combed to perfection raised up as if he just walked out of an explosion. Biggs being Biggs, he seems completely unaffected by whatever event transpired and walks over to Wes and Isolder on the left. A tap of the latter serves to inform the young engineer/mad or brilliant scientist of their presence. 'Is no man I befriend ever going to possess just a tiny portion of normality? Then again that'd most likely bore me after a month so probably for the best.'

Rey raises an eyebrow. "Could somebody please inform me what on earth you blew up this time?"

Biggs smiles. "Oh you know, just your average Nazi blue whatchamacallit that blows up bullet proof glass when you take up a sample the size of a lentil."

Everyone in the room freezes at the implications of what the young scientist has told them. She and Leia saw thousands of those cartridges, most of them lined up like bullets for a machine gun. Janson had blown up a tank with Hydra weaponry of an average size, a missile powered with this strange new energy they've amassed could wipe out a city if it lands. A plane full of those bombs would eradicate life on the American continent. 'This isn't a war to prevent dominance anymore, it's a fight to prevent our annihilation.' Luke squeezes her hand , acknowledging how serious the matter is but showing no outward fear to those younger than him. 'What does this sound like to a man who was told at our age the world had fought the war to end all wars? Is this what the boys back in Belgium felt when the first tanks spread their hail of death over them all?'

  
Isolder can only half smile because of the worry which won't leave his face. "Nazi magic, female superiors and skulls leading the world into Doomsday. Never a dull moment with this couple eh?"

Biggs responds somewhat in kind. "Oh trust me, English - you ain't seen nothing yet. Let me show what I got so you and the rest of these fine troopers don't reach the pearly gates."

The young scientist throws away a fabric to which Luke and the boys immediately widen their eyes in shock. Luke raises his hand, manners too ingrained by all those 19th century nurses who raised for him to outright yell without being insulted.

Luke is bewildered. "Mind telling why you're throwing away the standard carbon polymer for protective gear? I'm sure you have a reason, Biggs, but it's not clear to me at the moment."

Biggs is happy to share the answer. "Polymer withstands your average German bayonet, thing is Hydra's not gonna attack you with a bayonet or a pocket knife. I got something more suited to the occasion."

  
With all the enthusiasm of a magician about to reveal the lady sawed in half, he takes a mannequin covered and rolls it over to his captive audience. 'If the weapons industry goes down the toilet after the war, Biggs can always try showmanship. He could bring P.T Barnum to shame with minimum effort.'

He unveils the mannequin as one would a prized auction collectible. The result is a body armor that can also be used as a suit. "Presenting the future of armed protection: Kevlar weaving. A synthetic fiber developed by me and my French buddy Dumont back in good old occupied Paree. Heat resistant, outstanding strength to weight ratios. Provides ballistic protection to arms, neck, upper torso without sacrificing mobility. I was planning on keeping this baby hidden till the price value went up but it wouldn't be nice to lie when saying I gave you the best. Also weaved a little secret in that stops all the bullets from so much as grazing personally for you lot."

Rey is enthusiastic when she says, "Biggs, this is brilliant!!"

Janson not so much, but his question is reasonable. {It sounds brilliant but it's never been tested. How do we know it works? I like blowing things up, not getting blown up.}

Luke wants to believe Biggs when he says it does what he says it does. "Janson, I'm sure it's been tested somewhere."

Biggs doesn't disappoint. The man has done his testing. "Well, I tested it on dolls and then a monkey but if you want I can give you a live demonstration. Hey Threepio! Come over here!!"

As if summoned by magic, a thin but lively looking fellow in a yellow tux and glasses appears. The man seems a little nervous but overall he shares a cheery disposition. He has a tray of tea and raspberry tartlets with crème patisserie on his hands which means he must work for Biggs since they're his Achilles heel (apart from single women in their twenties.) Luke, ever the dear man goes to pick up the tray from him and set it on the table, a look of pity on his face. 'There's no need for that. Biggs wouldn't, would he?'

Threepio looks pleasantly delighted by his kind action. "Oh thank you, Sir. Might I know your name so I may thank you properly?"

Luke looks between the poor, ignorant man and Biggs."My name's Luke, and you can thank me by leaving the room right now."

Threepio bodily jerks back in shock. "But Master Luke, I can't leave. It's my job to ask everyone if they wish for alternate food and refreshment."

Luke is half talking, half escorting him out of the room. "Trust me what you sent is delicious. Smells wonderful, now good day and it was nice to meet you."

Biggs smirks. "Hold on a minute Threepio, there's something I need you to do."

Threepio spins around. "Oh, of course, Master Darklighter. How may I be of service?"

"Go over to the mannequin and put on the gear." He would.

'I can't let that nice butler get shot. He didn't do anything to warrant it, even if the armor does work how it's supposed to. Rey steps up to defend the poor man too. "Don't you dare put on that gear, Mister Threepio. Your boss is being highly inconsiderate towards you for no reason."

Biggs tries to shrug it off like it's nothing. "Rey, I wouldn't tell him to do if it meant he gets hurt. The most he'll feel is a slight discomfort while the bullets bounces off him. Unless I hit in the legs or head which I'm not going to do-I shouldn't have said that. I really shouldn't have said that. Threepio it's fine, don't run!!"

The next thing she knows Biggs is running after his manservant, probably to make sure he doesn't quit. What on earth possessed him to think that nice British man would be fine with potential death? Has he performed dangerous acts for his patron before like in the silent films?

Isolder looked one-part relieved, one-part disappointed. "While I can't say I disagree with your actions, now we're left with no one to try on the bloody thing. Guess we'll have to wait then."

Wes catches the latter. {And what do you expect Isolder, that someone in need of a lesson will just come waltzing down the stairs?}

All of them turn to hear the Andrew Sisters's 'Oh Johnny' being whistled as footsteps steadily tread down to the armory. Janson mutters he's officially a psychic and will be heading to the lottery stacks first thing tomorrow. Luke reminds him the British government shut down the lottery prizes* till the war's ended and is told something Rey sort of translates as 'you're no fun old man' but she can't be certain as her French is still a work in progress. The voice asking if there's raspberry tartlets left turns out to be none other than Mister Calrissian who kisses Rey's hand in a way nowhere near as charming as Luke. (Yes, she's bias but one doesn't marry a man because you don't prefer him over the rest).

Calrissian has all the air of a man who has no idea what he's just walked in to. "Enchante Madame. How may I brighten your day this fine evening?" 'That's it. If we're going to fight a war together, Lando has to start seeing me as a CO and not a pretty girl to flirt with.'

She mouths 'here's the one in need of a lesson' to Luke before carrying out her spontaneous plan. "Would you really do anything for me, Mister Calrissian?"

It's almost sweet when he replies, "Why Madam, I am your devoted servant."

Her response is almost too much. "I have this fantasy of watching a man put on protective gear. Would you be a Saint and help me fulfil it?"

Calrissian turns to Luke, showing he actually does have some values towards married couples. "You don't mind me attending to the missus, do you?"

Luke gives him the 'go ahead' gesture "No, of course not. These old bones ain't what they used to be so why should I begrudge Rey some youthful fun?"

Rey has to wonder if Calrissian's asking her, Luke or the both of them when he says, "Glad that's settled. What do you say we grab a bite after this? I know this charming little bistro a block down. Best duck a la orange you'll ever have."

He puts on the armor, striking a pose similar to Clark Gable on Gone With The Wind. Rey tells him to wait for a moment, scanning the impressive futuristic display of guns on the table. She notices a cart of shields underneath the set of weapons. Some built and some half-finished but all next to her battered stage prop. The fact Biggs remembered how attached to the shield she'd gotten brings a smile to her face. Even if she's still not happy at him for wanting to shoot his staff. A few of them have technological tools like flamethrowers or electric relays but none feel right somehow.

Then, as if called forth by destiny the young woman's hazel irises lock with a plain, round shield from the bottom cart. Entranced by the sleek yet humble design, Rey spins it between her palms. It’s light, balanced. A tiny nick with her fingertips and it sings like a bell. 'Yes, this is mine. I can sense it deep in my bones.'

Still striking a pose, Calrissian interrupts Rey's thoughts. "Hey miss, how much longer do I have to wait here?"

Half hearing him, Rey replies. "I'll tend to you in a minute, Calrissian. Do you any of you know what this shield is made of?"

Bodhi comes in that moment, unaware Biggs has left as he tells everyone the broken glass has been fixed and reinforced. Though that train of thought is quickly corrected when she hears the young engineer's voice congratulating Private Rook for his keen mastery of fixing workplaces.

Biggs looks pleased when he see her with the shield. "I see you've found what's left of my vibranium sample. Most beautiful metal on Earth."

She gives the shield to Lando and takes advantage of the fact Bodhi brought a camera for the before and after comparisons of the labs. As the African-American poses for him with the circular defense instrument in full ignorance Rey turns her attention to Biggs. Curious, Rey asks, "What's left?"

Biggs gaily responds. ''I put a bit on your regiment's chest plate. Wasn't gonna let the Krauts ruin a pair of good breasts. There's a shortage of upper body perfection in the world, be a shame to lose yours."

Rey rolls her eyes, but keeps on subject. The metal, not her breasts. "It's that good?"

Biggs is all to please to talk about it. "It’s completely vibration absorbent. Should make a bullet feel like a cotton ball."

Luke asks the obvious. "How come it's not standard issue?"

Biggs really did enjoy being the smartest, or in this case, the most knowledgeable person in the room. "It's the rarest metal on Earth. Roosevelt was gifted a brick of the stuff by the King of Wakanda, this small third world country in the middle of Africa, as a sign of solidarity. FDR gave it to DOD and they didn't know what to do with it. DOD gave it to the army and the army gave it to me."

Calrissian broke his pose. "Rarest metal on Earth and you used it for a prototype that may never see the light of day, Darklighter? Are you sure about being the smartest person on base?"

'Oh right, I almost forgot.' Rey is unable to not smile as she notices that all the others are taking pictures with the shield, Wes urging Luke forward to join them in the improvised photo shoot. 'Is it wrong I feel more at ease with a bunch of men who are practically strangers in a war zone than I did back home with all those other wives waving goodbye at the docks? I'd known some of those women my whole life but I never felt safe and wanted in the nurses' wards without Maz.'

In her mind home had always been Brooklyn. The smell of minted orange juice and coffee in the mornings. Sunday Church in soft familial Latin as she stood at the front so all those who stare in pity or deprecation are reminded just who made the cripples walk and blind men see. Afternoons spent with every disease known to man as the radio booms in music mostly ill-fitting for when a life departed and families wept, but also incapable of reflecting the joy when someone was released with a clean bill of health to loving arms. But mostly it was her grandfather's fond smile as the holy bread is placed on her mouth. The faint trace of her father's hugs as he sneaked in 'forbidden' Marxist literature with the justification that Engels quoted the original Christians (which were of course Catholic) as living the ideal lifestyle or at least that was how he'd phrased it so her juvenile mind could understand. Her husband's tip of the hat after sweet kisses with 'Goodbye Mrs. Skywalker, stay out of trouble' and before that, practicing calligraphy so they matched the beautiful swirled frame grandfather sent to the front.

'Land changes whether people will it or not. Does home change as well? Or is the environment which surrounds simply a covering for the real home which is the people who love you? If the latter rings true, do I feel this way because my home is growing larger than I expected?'

Luke looks at her intensely. "Doll, you gonna stay pondering at the corner, or you gonna come over here?"

Rey laughs. "With that impatience, love, the war will be over by Christmas."

Calrissian finds an opportunity and jumps in without looking. "You like Christmas? Back at New Orleans we light up the whole bayou. I'll take you for a steamboat ride with music so grand it will make you leave your husband for me. What do you say?"

Luke raises his hands in Calrissian's direction before he gives Rey the 'he's all yours' gesture. For a moment the young lady looks at him, expressionless. Then she weighs her options from the table of guns, picks up a 1941 Beretta modified to Biggs's preferences and shoots it at the younger man's chest as the rest of them shrink away. As predicted by Darklighter, the first bullet causes no harm and simply ricochets weakly to the earth in its planed state. All the following are blocked by the shield. The slugs flatten and plink to the ground.

Rey looks satisfied. "Still want a bite to eat, Calrissian?"

Calrissian not so much. "Well, uh ,sure. If everyone goes, we are a team now right?"

Janson smirks, a gleeful twinkling in his eyes. {I agree with this method of pummeling. Does she have a female cousin of age? Anymore and I can kill every priest in France with a heart attack.}

Smoke is still present on her gun when she sets it down and heads to Biggs, nary an eye leaves Rey as she discreetly slides a sketch into the young scientist's breast pocket made while waiting for her green dress to be pressed. Who'd have thought they could be put to use now? "I had some ideas about the design."

Biggs eyebrows are still up by his hairline. "Whatever you want pal, so long as it doesn't compromise your safety."

The boys laugh and Isolder displays his 'magic ability' of finding alcohol anywhere, producing a bourbon which is first given to poor Lando who is slightly shaken but also has the look of a man about to have an unprecedented amount of fun as he takes a swig. Bodhi declines on account of his religion, though he kisses the bottle for laughs. Wes mutters this will do for now, but for the first explosion only champagne will do as Mister Threepio (who must be a saint if he came back) hands them all glasses, filling Bodhi's with tea. Biggs claps the butler on the back and promises no more bullets, causing a 'much appreciated Sir' from the major-domo.

With a smile that could put the sun at noon to shame, Luke raises a toast. "To Captain America, may she always keep us and Hydra on her toes."

"Hear, hear."

                         

'Oh yes. I think I'll like being Captain America. Especially with these Howling Commandos.'

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *medical term for coma and catatonic state at the time.  
> *Winston Churchill diverted the lottery prize funds to the army until the surrender of Germany in 1945.  
> Hands out tin cup: comments please???

**Author's Note:**

> Hands out tin cup: Comments please???
> 
> Also: could more people write Luke/Rey please? Help us reach the 100 works....


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